Cav's Kid England's Call

 

Rehan Ahmed: 'I'm not even the best cricketer in my family'

Will Macpherson

For Rehan Ahmed, the next two months represent a voyage of cricketing discovery on which anything could happen.

Next Sunday he flies to Dubai with England Lions, after which he is set to join the senior squad as a net bowler in Pakistan, the land of his father – who passed on a love of the game to Rehan and his two brothers. Becoming England’s youngest Test debutant is not inconceivable.

A breezy half-hour in Ahmed’s company confirms one thing: English cricket’s brightest young starlet will not be remotely fazed by anything the tour throws at him. Except one person, perhaps. “James Anderson is going to be on the tour, so that’s just mental,” he laughs. “He’s played international cricket longer than I’ve been alive! It’s crazy.”

Anderson, who made his England debut in 2003, will travel with the Lions to prepare for the Pakistan tour and Ahmed, born in August 2004, is right.

In fact, on the second day of Anderson’s Test debut, Ahmed’s older brother, Raheem, was born. He is a left-arm seamer who played for Leicestershire seconds in 2021 but has been injured for the last year. Four years after Rehan, in February 2008, Farhan was born. He is an off-spinning all-rounder already playing for Nottinghamshire seconds at just 14. That follows Rehan’s extraordinary path; he bowled at England in the nets when he was just 11.

Rehan rates Raheem as the best of the three. “He’s very good,” he says. “I’m not just saying it, because I’d never say it in front of him, but he’s actually quite good – better than he thinks he is, anyway."

What about Farhan? “He’s doing well, but when I was his age I was batting and bowling [whereas he is in the team as a bowler],” he jokes. “Nah, he’s a proper cricketer. Playing second team at 14 is an achievement in itself, especially as an off-spinner. He’s a good batter as well.”

Ahmed said this week that he took up leg-spin because it is cricket’s hardest craft. Why, then, did he allow Farhan to take up off-spin?

"I don’t know,” he says. “But you don’t want two leg-spinners in the same team. If we want to play for England, we’re going to have to do two different things.

“We have all had dreams about all three of us playing.”

In time, you sense, English cricket might have rather a lot for which to thank Naeem Ahmed and his wife Musrat Hussain. Having played cricket in Pakistan, Naeem came to England from Mirpur – not far from Islamabad – to “work and help family back home”.

“He’s a taxi driver,” says Rehan. “He’d work long hours in the nights and then take us to games in the morning. He sacrificed a lot, as well as my mum. My mum has been behind us the whole time, at home. It’s like a partnership.

“[Dad] couldn’t really play cricket when he wanted to. For him, he wanted his sons to do it. There was never a forced element, like ‘you have to do it’. It was always if you wanted to. We just fell in love with the game.”

Rehan’s passion for cricket is so deep and infectious – he jokes that it is “the only thing he’s interested in in life” and that it is “not possible to go a day without picking up a bat or ball” – that coaches are having to persuade him to train less. And he is so sure of himself that he persuaded his Leicestershire coaches to promote him to No 5 in just his third first-class game, and duly scored a maiden century, to follow up first five-wicket haul.

Are the rest of the family as into the game? “I’m not sure they’re as obsessed but I know they all really like cricket,” Rehan laughs. “I think I’m just a bit weird.

"I just never get sick of it, really. Even on a bad day, I’m like, so what? I just keep shadow-batting. I keep thinking about the game. People say sometimes it can get you mentally drained, as much as I try to not think of it, I just keep thinking of it. I just think it’s the best thing ever. I don’t really think of studies, movies, anything like that. It’s just cricket.

“In the Hundred, Mahela [Jayawardene, his coach at Southern Brave] saw I’d be training every day and was like ‘look, you need to not play. You’re not allowed to train today.’ But I found a way… They would train during the day, so I’d go to the indoor centre at 7pm, when they were out.”

It is little surprise, given his obsession, that Ahmed’s aim is to be “a proper all-rounder”. Before each game at Leicestershire this year, he would remind coach Paul Nixon and director of cricket Claude Henderson “I’m a batsman, you know”; against Derbyshire, in the final game of the season, they relented, and he scored a dashing century.

“I've always seen myself as more of a batsman to be honest, so to get a hundred was satisfying,” he says. “I want to be a proper all-rounder. Someone who contributes with bat and ball.”

He plays the same trick with captains. “I always make sure my arm is turning round when I look at the captain, just for a bit of a hint,” he says. “I tell the captain I'm ready to bowl in any situation, whether it's the worst time to bowl or the best time.”

Ahmed’s 122 against Derbyshire came in just 113 balls, and you sense Brendon McCullum would like his attitude to batting, too: “you will always get a ball with your name on it so it’s trying to make the most of it, especially against spinners”.

Unsurprisingly, Ahmed watched plenty of McCullum’s team in action this year. “I have always made sure I have time to watch cricket,” he says. “I’ve watched most of the Test matches this summer, it’s been very entertaining. It’s not reckless, just a very fun way to play cricket.” And did it make him want to be involved? “100 per cent."

A trip to Pakistan would be more special for Ahmed than many of his team-mates.

“We have family there, so I’ve been a few times, to Islamabad, Lahore, Multan,” he says. “Every time I’ve been, it’s always been great. The way they look after you there is crazy. Whenever I’ve been there, I’ll go to the stadium that’s near my house and train, and you’ll have a load of bowlers ready to bowl to you and a load of batters ready to bat against you. It’s a great place.

“It would mean the world to represent England in Pakistan. It would be great.”

England to call up 18-year-old Rehan Ahmed after just three first-class matches

Will Macpherson

Rehan Ahmed, the 18-year-old Leicestershire leg-spinner, is set to be involved in his first senior England squad next month, despite playing only three first-class games.

England will take an expanded squad to Abu Dhabi for an intra-squad warm-up match involving England Lions. That will provide preparation for the three-Test tour of Pakistan in December.

Ahmed will be named in the Lions group, and is expected to be retained for the Test tour, likely as a net bowler and travelling reserve, raising the possibility that he could become England men’s youngest Test debutant.

Against Derbyshire last month, Ahmed finished the county season in some style. His third first-class match brought both a maiden century (a glittering 122 from 113 balls at No 5) and a maiden five-wicket haul (five for 114).

Ahmed has been on the radar of cricket fans longer than the average teenager with three first-class games to his name for the county that finished last in this year’s Championship.

He's a leggie, he's unfamiliar (to most) so ticks a couple of boxes. However, he only played ten games for Carrington and Cavaliers this year, but he's a Notts lad, and a cynic might suggest that he ticks some other urgent boxes as well. So how is it that he could only get into 3 starting elevens for the worst county of 2022? His England u19 schedules weren't that full on! Who'll be next, Fateh Singh?

Word on the street: look out for his younger brother; he's even more talented.