Rehan Ahmed, who scored five out of 48 on his debut in Karachi last winter, was called up to the England squad to cover for Moin Ali. Photo: AP Photo/Fareed Khan.
Rehan Ahmed could become the youngest player to play in a Test between England and Australia in 146 years next week at Lord's after being called on to cover for Moen Ali.
England more once again showed her appetite for adventure by choosing Ahmed over Will Jax or Liam Dawson as Moine heals a finger injury.
While Moin could overcome injury to play if Ahmed, the 18-year-old from Leicestershire, is selected, he will become the youngest player to play the Men's Tests between both countries since Australian Tom Garrett competed in the first two matches between the side in Melbourne in 1877, at the age of 18. The series was named the Ashes only five years later.
Moin returned to Test cricket after almost two years in the series opener at Edgbaston after suffering a stress fracture in his back for Jack Leach, England's top 13 player Ben Stokes and Brandon McCallum.
Moin did what he was asked to do, creating chances (he took three wickets and saw two more asked for by Johnny Bairstow's miss), but almost immediately relapsed into a longtime injury. His spinning finger, as it did during the 2017/18 Ashes tour, tore due to the increase in his workload, causing a nasty blister. His inability to make many overs in useful conditions on the last day was a contributing factor to England's defeat in the epic test.
Moin Ali's sore index finger leaves him doubtful after returning for testing at Edgbaston. Photo: Martin Rickett/PA Wire
After the game, coach McCallum said he would play for Lorde if he was fit. England have been keeping an eye on his fitness all week and while Moen's finger is said to be improving rapidly, they feel a cover-up is needed. Even if the injury heals, it could crack again when Moin starts training with Lord on Monday.
Ahmed is already the youngest-ever England men's international in all three international formats and picked up a memorable five-wicket record on a Test debut in Pakistan in December. He is fearless, and his ability to spin the ball in both directions may have become a talking point due to Australia's division into right-handed and left-handed batsmen.
Joe Root's performance at Edgbaston was also taken into account. On the final day, Ruth put up a solid spell (before eventually getting a pair of crucial sixes from Pat Cummins), showing that he could be used to hold the end, while Ahmed was used as a more offensive and mysterious option.
This summer, Ahmed was listed as a substitute for both Leach and Moen with a concussion, so the English have not forgotten about him while he plays for Leicestershire. In the Championship Division Two this season, he took just six wickets at 67.7 but scored four half-centuries.
It is unlikely that after a long period of dry weather, England will be able to do without an advanced spinner. Ahmed beat Jax and Dawson because of his obvious x factor. Jax could get hurt because he spins the ball just like Ruth and remains a rough player, while Dawson is a seasoned, reliable operator who is a more Leach-like option.
Ruth said after a game he longed to play more often, but England would also be wary of overburdening the world's best batsman.
“I think Moen will be fine, I'm sure he'll be fine,” Ruth said. “It's always great when you have the opportunity to contribute to any test match, you want to participate and prove yourself in these important moments.
“What a great sight it was, what a great opportunity to have an impact on game. This is what you want and I am always ready to take the chance to pass the test wickets.”
Following captain Ben Stokes' request for “flat, fast pitches”, England bowlers James Anderson and Stuart Broad were critical of the field at Edgbaston, which was largely very good for batting. In recent years Lord has had a slow wicket too; Head gardener Carl McDermott gave a preview of next week's surface on Twitter yesterday.
After the test of the Lord, England heads to Headingley for the third test. They will name a new team for this game; it is likely that this will come too soon for pacemaker Ollie Stone, who is set to return with a hamstring injury in the T20 game for Nottinghamshire, rather than in the County Championship game starting on Sunday.
Rehan Ahmed's pick is a baseball move , but this is a risk for its development. second opportunity, in his test debut in Pakistan Photo: Getty Images/Asif Hassan
Nick Holt, Chief Cricket Correspondent
Any thoughts that England will tread carefully and retreat from the Buzzball after the loss at Edgbaston were proven wrong when teenager Rehan Ahmed was added to the Lords squad.
Of course, this is a game of chance, there is always a risk. an element of risk for any such young cricketer, but in some respects he is a safer choice than Moin Ali a week ago. At least Ahmed has been playing top-notch cricket for the past 21 months.
Other alternatives are no more guaranteed success than Rehan: Will Jax only started seriously bowling off-spin a year ago, and Liam Dawson really didn't close to test cricket for 5 years.
The limited selection is a reminder of the under-spin in English cricket that Sir Andrew Strauss was trying to address in his review last year before the county lobby yelled it out.
Ahmed should be full of confidence after the winter he's been in England's youngest debutant in Test, ODI and T20 cricket and ended a tour of Pakistan with Brandon McCallum saying he could 'hit' the cricket world.
McCallum will see only positives in choosing Ahmed. Why are you thinking about embarrassment? he said before the Irish test, when a journalist asked about a potentially negative outcome. Ahmed will get that message.
Joe Root's two-wicket second-inning spell convinced England he could play a bigger hand in the series, giving Ahmed some offensive control; a natural role for a leggy.
Ahmed's form at Leicestershire is hardly inspiring – six wickets on 67 – but the England side has long since given up looking at league averages as a guideline for selection and believes excluding the young player from the county game will do more good.
Rehan Ahmed.
Besides, given that Ahmed was bowling in April-May, you can hardly expect him to pull out teams. Ben Stokes guided him well in Karachi as he became the youngest bowler to take five wickets on his debut, taking him out at the right time and giving him good pitches.
His seven-wicket match had some bad shots from Pakistan but played better as the game progressed, with more control and turning. His main weapon is the googly – to the extent that it's almost his standard ball and not a broken leg – which is good for left-handers, and in Australia four of them are in the top seven, six on the team if Mitchell Stark plays.
Ahmed's Google left-hander Faheem Ashraf in Karachi demonstrated the threat he can pose to Australia as he rounded the wicket, served straight and beat a defender to get into the box.
He turned out to be a good player. also a stand break which is often the role of the wrist when things go wrong because they can pull off the unexpected. Babar Azam and Saud Shakeel tried their best, but Shakeel, a left-hander, was googly out and the next ball, a broken leg, took the inside edge for a bat.
There is also the added threat that a wrist spinner poses to tailerers who struggle to read the options but can't resist trying. Overturning the Australian “three 11 year olds”, as Ollie Robinson puts it, could be the difference between winning and losing in Lord's tough test.
Rehan's summoning seems to take away the prospect of a full blown attack, which is probably reasonable considering the hot weather in London over the past couple of weeks. In 2009 Australia made the mistake of going to the Oval Test in similar dry conditions without a lure and it cost them the series. Stokes said he always wants to have a spinner on his team and as he has already received Test Championship points for slow over-bets in Birmingham, England could continue this at Lord's. The spinner helps solve this problem.
There is no doubt that throwing spinners against Australia can be brutal: Scott Borthwick and Mason Crane, both leg spinners, debuted in the Sydney Test and have not been seen since. saw. while Simon Kerrigan played one Test at the Oval in 2013, where Shane Watson tore it apart and brought it back to the anonymity of county cricket.
Ashes can be cruel to young spinners,
But Crane and Borthwick joined the broken team when Ashes were gone and the guilt game was in full swing, and Kerrigan didn't have the guts then to withstand the pressures of top-tier sports.< /p>
Besides, it's a different, much more supportive environment in England, and Ahmed also benefits from being an all-rounder. If he runs, his bowling alley runs out of power.
Australia is likely to treat Root with less respect than Edgbaston. The way Pat Cummins knocked him down in two sixes to give momentum to their run chase is how they'll look at Root at Lord's, which means Stokes might have to swallow his pride and a little more defend with your fields <. /p>
With Ahmed and Root, this will give Stokes a break before a really big spell like Australia's second inning in Birmingham, and if Mark Wood plays it will give the England attack a double-edged x-factor threat.
Things can go wrong. Ahmed could get cold, he could get out of the attack on the first day if Australia hits first and gets hurt from the experience.
What he needs is a guiding hand from a fellow leg spinner and someone who Loved hugging him this week Shane Warne. After his appeal, footage appeared again on social networks in which he communicates with 13-year-old Ahmed. Warne would have loved everything about this England team and Ahmed's choice would have been delighted.
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