RICHARD GIBSON: Rehan Ahmed is favored by Shane Warne and the Aussie spin legend’s showman swagger… the teenage sensation is the craziest of a cricket-mad family and shadow-bats before bed
Rehan Ahmed is the effervescent England player who idolizes Shane Warne and seems to be on course for similar status.
On Monday, the Leicestershire teenager single-wristed his debut Test match in Karachi with a stunning five-wicket haul.
Not content with being this country’s youngest Test cap, he also became the youngest of all comers to take a five-for on debut and returned the best figures by an England leg-spinner since 16-4-35-5 by Tommy Greenhough. against India at Lord’s in 1959.
Rehan Ahmed became the youngest player to take five wickets in a Test as he claimed 5-48
Ahmed, 18, already possesses the showman swagger of the late Warne, who after seeing him play for England seniors in net practice not long after primary school predicted he would become a first-class cricketer before completing his GCSEs at Nottingham’s Bluecoat Aspley Academy.
Even if that schedule wasn’t kept, his current sense of time couldn’t be better.
On Friday, he entered the Indian Premier League auction for a base price of £40,000 – a sum more than the £27,000-a-year, five-season deal he signed with his county in the spring.
Financially, his life is about to change, regardless of whether hands are raised at the mention of his name later this week.
Ahmed’s introduction turned the day in England’s favor and they were on the brink of victory
Foreign spinners are not usually pursued because of India’s abundance of high-quality home-growns but franchise owners’ eyes are caught not just by a player’s numbers but by their character.
And as Ahmed showed over three days at the National Stadium, he has plenty of that.
Participation in overseas Twenty20 leagues is assured.
After taking three wickets for the England Lions in a resounding win over South Africa in Taunton last summer, he revealed that strategies are in place.
Ahmed’s father Naeem was in the Karachi crowd as the leg-spinner bowled the third Test
The ECB intends to manage his workload around England commitments, believing it will help his development to have a balanced diet of what cricket has to offer. One of the theories when the selection was first mooted for Pakistan’s Test tour at the end of September was that it would provide a tantalizing taster of a future career under the watch of Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes.
It also kept him off the pre-Christmas Twenty20 radar. He was supposed to participate in Pakistan’s international junior league but pulled out to focus on England’s pre-series preparations with Pakistan in the UAE.
It was there that McCullum and Stokes recognized that despite hitting 73 in just eight overs, Ahmed might be the missing piece in their attack: an enigmatic bowler who threatens to run it through either side of the opposition’s bat.
As he showed this week, his googly is his strength. But with England spin coach Jeetan Patel, he is working on his stock leg-break.
The 18-year-old already possesses the showman swagger of the late, great Shane Warne
Overtime is ambrosia to him. In terms of his passion for the sport, he is the craziest in a cricket-mad family. Asked about other hobbies, he had trouble coming up with anything. He shadow-bats before bed, for goodness sake.
The middle of three siblings – the youngest Farhan played for Nottinghamshire’s second XI aged 14 last summer – is now living the England dream with Raheem, a left-arm seamer who also came through Grace Road academy before having injury problems, shared growing up.
Hours of training took place with their taxi-driving dad Naeem at their home in the Midlands, as well as at the international grounds of Lahore, Islamabad and Multan during family holidays in Pakistan.
This week has been a long time in the making. And like his captain Stokes and Warne, the spotlight has found him.
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