by It is difficult for young players to find their place in a dressing room in England and the easiest way to do that with the Bazballers is certainly to take up golf.
But not for Rehan Ahmed. “I’m not sure how anyone plays that sport. Exciting sport. I keep it [golf club]) like a cricket bat. keys [Rob Key] he told me to beat him and I missed him so much,” he says, extending his hand.
Sitting on the roof terrace of the team hotel and contemplating playing back-to-back Tests for the first time, Rehan cuts a confident, relaxed figure. That describes his Muslim faith which will always come to the fore and puts cricket into perspective.
But he seems calm and carefree as a 19-year-old in Test cricket as Ben Stokes has created an environment in which a young British Asian and Muslim enthusiast can be in the Bazball environment.
He was excused from training two days before the second Test because he was fasting – he opts for voluntary fasting on Mondays and Thursdays – and was also allowed to miss the pre-league training camp in Abu Dhabi to attend prayers Friday. “I sent a message to the team manager asking if we could miss this day because we need to pray. Stokes messaged me immediately and said come to me whenever you want about this kind of stuff, I totally understand. And yes, he is true to his word. Every time I pray that it is so respectful, very understanding. Everyone is on this journey.”
Rehan is a cricket obsessive but on a long tour he forced himself to leave his bat in the dressing room overnight so that he does not wear his batting shade all evening. Instead he relaxes by watching a so-called Turkish drama Ertugrul, set in the Ottoman Empire, is not a common topic of conversation with English players. “I started it in Pakistan and I still have three years left and by the time I finish it, I will have forgotten the first part, so I will start again.”
Rehan will be joined by his older brother in Abu Dhabi this week and although he has been told there will be no training there will be time to reflect on his series so far. He has eight wickets after two Tests and is likely to bowl more as the series progresses. Joe Root’s role as a spinner may fade into the background as he tries to find form with the bat. Root went on loose in the first innings of the second Test but it took Stokes 60 pelawd to bowl the ball. He responded with three wickets. Along with Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir, he did not let India run away in the second innings when Root was injured as India built a big lead.
“I don’t like bowling girls. I think that’s boring.” he says, speaking the language without fear that Bazball management likes to hear. Mind you, bowling the odd girl is handy for a spinner as it usually means they’ve cut out the bad ball, but Rehan seems naturally able to smooth out a bad day or a bad delivery, while Stokes is assured that not it doesn’t matter if he’s going for four, it’s a good sign, considering that not many English spinners could handle that pressure.
Stokes likes him because he always wants the ball and he was itching to step in at number 3 on the third evening and don the nighthawk clothes as Stuart Broad’s successor in the post. He danced down the wicket in the final on the third day in Vizag and his arm might be hitting over the top.
“It’s the way I want to play. I thought it was the first time India had the pitch for me. I thought I’d try to amend a few boundaries here. It made sense. I managed to do that, I got a few in the end. Hopefully they’ll hold the field a bit more.”
His favorite player growing up was Kevin Pietersen, who was in India commentating on the first two Tests and gave him some batting advice before he started running on the fourth day. “He was right, I just want to see six.”
In training he says he prefers batting but in matches it is different. “I like bowling, moving the field around.” And so far he is unfazed in India, despite the record of leg spinners here. “I don’t think there are many places where you can say that leg spin does very well. I think it’s more about adapting as well as you can,” he said. “I think I was a bit slow in the first Test. Batsmen had enough time to play more. So I tried to speed up a bit. It’s more of a thinking game than anything. Not a skill. I think if you keep it very simple, you’ll be fine.”
Adil Rashid broke the glass ceiling for English leg-spinners to become one of the world’s best in white-ball cricket but he didn’t last long in Tests when there was impatience with bad bowling and he dropped out . He loves the game red ball.
“In this new era of aggressive positive thinking, I mentioned in a way that he didn’t. It’s just two different players at two different times.”
Cricket is all about timing and Rehan is in the right place, the right team, at the right time. The benefit to both will, over time, be clearly seen.
