Pakistan spinner Abrar Ahmed made a sensational start to Test cricket on Friday as he picked up seven wickets on the first day of the second match of the series in Multan.
Ahmed is described as a leg spinner but he is a modern day mystery bowler who showcased his full range of deliveries to leave England in turmoil.
Ahmed made the most of a helpful pitch and England's attacking mindset as he finished with sensational figures of 7-114 in 22 overs.
He struck in his very first over, rattling the stumps of Zak Crawley. That set the tone for the next 20 odd overs for Ahmed as England kept attacking him with sweeps and reverse sweeps but failed to read his variations.
Ahmed dismissed Crawley (19), Ben Duckett (63) and Joe Root (eight) in the first two hours, before getting the wickets of Ollie Pope (60) and Harry Brook (nine).
Ahmed became the 13th Pakistan bowler to take five or more wickets in an innings on debut.
He finished with five wickets in the first session itself, deceiving Brook in the air and getting him caught at mid off. England captain Ben Stokes played him with more conviction, but he too fell to a brilliant piece of bowling from Ahmed, losing his off stump to a perfect googly while trying to defend.
Earlier, he had deceived Root with a big leg break to trap him lbw, proving that he has all the variations needed to succeed.
When and where did Ahmed start his cricket?
Ahmed, 24, was born in Shinkiari, a village near Abbottabad. His father moved to Karachi in 1970s, where he took to tape-ball cricket. He moved up the ranks through age group cricket in Karachi before making his mark in the Pakistan Super League in 2017.
There, he impressed on his debut, giving away just 22 runs from four overs for Karachi Kings even as Eoin Morgan, playing for Peshawar Zalmi, blasted 80 from 57 balls. Then, Ahmed faded away for close to three years.
What happened to Ahmed?
A lower back stress fracture almost finished his career just as it was blossoming. After years on the sidelines, and plagued by questions over his action, Ahmed returned to competitive cricket in the beginning of 2020, playing for a Sindh Second XI in the National T20 Second XI Cup. He soon moved on to red ball cricket and made his first-class debut by the end of the year.
His first-class record of 76 wickets from 14 matches showed potential for success in the longest format. Interestingly, his best haul in domestic cricket was 6-40, which he bettered on his Test debut.
Is he a mystery spinner?
Ahmed - who got the nickname 'Harry Potter' because of his glasses - is a classic mystery bowler. He bowls leg spin, carrom ball and googly with the same action, holding the ball on his finger tips and firing the ball into the stumps, relying on subtle variations deceive the batsman.
He is not a big turner of the ball but his stump-to-stump bowling means the batsman has to play every delivery and they can't launch him down the ground easily as he barely flights the ball.
On a helpful pitch like the one in Multan, England batsmen took over 100 runs from his 22 overs but lost seven wickets to him. It turned out be T20 cricket with the red ball, and Ahmed came out on top in the end.
