Shane Warne had one of many brightest minds in cricket when it got here to leg spin, and one viral second from six years in the past has resurfaced as England gear up for the second Test at Lord’s, trying to degree the sequence after a heartbreaking defeat at Edgbaston.
Looking to cowl for the burned and bloody spinning finger of offspinner Moeen Ali, himself dragged out of retirement in a shock name up as cowl for the injured Jack Leach, England have now drafted in teenager Rehan Ahmed, who would play his first Test on house soil after a record-breaking debut towards Pakistan late final yr.
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If Ahmed strains up at Lord’s towards Australia in what can be simply his second Test, he’ll turn out to be the youngest male participant to function within the historical past of Tests between England and Australia.
At simply 18 years and 126 days previous, Ahmed grew to become the youngest male Test cricketer within the historical past of English cricket together with his debut towards Pakistan in Karachi, after which went on to turn out to be the youngest debutant to take a five-wicket haul in males’s Tests together with his 5/48.
However, again in 2017, a 13-year-old Rehan was enjoying for the standard Nottinghamshire Colts and bowling within the nets to professionals when he featured on a Sky Sports section hosted by The King.
Warne was so impressed with Ahmed’s bowling that he delivered together with his evaluation a prophecy.
“That’s awesome, man,” Warne mentioned.
“Really, really good. I’m going to keep a close eye on you. I think we will be commentating on you very soon. I think you could be playing first-class cricket by the age of 15.”
Ahmed would later go on to say in an interview that Warne’s phrases impressed him.
“I think he was probably the changing point of me as a leg-spinner because the first time I met him it just made me want to do it more,” Ahmed mentioned.
“I met him when I was 13 at Lord’s and it just made me think, ‘I want to keep bowling leg-spin.’”
Ahmed would go on to debut for Leicestershire at 16, and is without doubt one of the most precocious skills in English cricket, changing into the primary ever Leicestershire participant to attain his maiden hundred and five-wicket haul in the identical match.
By 2022, he would make his worldwide debuts in all codecs of the sport for England, changing into the youngest English male debutant in all codecs.
Ahmed’s leg spin and batting skill make him a distinctly totally different problem for the Australians, who haven’t confronted an English legspinner since Mason Crane in 2018, and never in English circumstances since part-timer Tim Curtis in 1989.
To discover the final time England performed a full-time legspinner towards Australia in England, you need to look all the best way again to Eric Hollies in 1948 at The Oval.
In that Test, Hollies famously dismissed Sir Donald Bradman for a duck in what can be his last Test innings, leaving him together with his now iconic common of 99.94, 4 runs wanting a profession common of 100.
It speaks volumes for the importance of England deciding on Ahmed in English circumstances in the event that they achieve this on Wednesday, and of the enormity of the philosophical shift in English cricket that Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum’s “Bazball” technique represents.
The Second Test at Lord’s will get underway on Wednesday.
Originally revealed as Rehan Ahmed introduced into England Test squad as cowl for injured Moeen Ali forward of Lord’s Test
Source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au
