Mohammad Tayyab serves left-handed spin to righties and right-handed takeoff to lefties. Photo: Nick Treharne for The Telegraph
Introducing English cricket's first ambidextrous bowler who can spin equally effectively right- or left-arm: Mohammad Tayyab Nasir, who plays for Bedminster CC in Bristol and turned 20 last week .
Throughout the season, Tayyab, nicknamed «T», has bowled left-arm spin to right-handers in the West of England Premier League First Division and off-spin to left-handers, and not bad either. He is undoubtedly Bedminster's leading wicket-taker in this rain-shortened season with 32 wickets at 19 apiece and a rate of one wicket in every 24 balls.
Gloucestershire's leading white-ball player Tom Smith also stars. for Bedminster, one of Bristol's two leading clubs, and when they played together in the same squad in the 50-a-side Premier League, they had remarkably similar performances.
«Tom, being a tricky old spinner, knows how to deal with the over, but the T is more of a threat and spins the ball more,» said Steve Snell, the former Gloucestershire director of cricket who also plays for Bedminster and stands on the spot. for both spinners. In his few league games, Smith has taken eight wickets at 24 and a rate of one wicket in every 30 balls.
People walking past the Bedminster pitch at The Clanage during the game against league leaders Bath could be forgiven for thinking they were looking through a mirror at certain stages. A short and stocky left-arm bowler, he caught Bath all-rounder James Arney at mid-on. In the next ball, in the same over, he bowled the new batsman, a left-hander, outside the stump with a break.
In between deliveries, while the new batsman came in, Tayyab measured out a new run-up on the other side of the stumps and made a couple practice pitches to a teammate. It's so easy for him to change weapons; and when he has warmed up with both hands, and a right-hander and a left-hander are hitting, he instantly switches from one hand to the other.
“I took 14 wickets with my right arm and 18 with my left arm,” said Tayyab, a cheerful man whose earlobes tilt slightly forward. When Bedminster beat the league leaders by four runs, thanks in no small part to his two wickets for 30 from 10 overs and 19 from 18 balls, he was seen running out of deep square to shake hands with his opponents before celebrating with by your team. -comrades.
Mohammed Tayyab took 18 of his 32 wickets with left-arm spin. Photo: Nick Treharne for the Telegraph
Mind you, Tayyab knows his opponents quite well, with Bath being the biggest and best-resourced club in the region. In a league match in Bath earlier this season, the hosts needed 19 runs from the last two overs. The first, bowled by Gloucestershire seamer Dom Goodman, was worth 16. Tayyab, with three runs in the game, took the wicket and with a run-out secured a draw.
“I was born in Peshawar,” Tayyab said in his passable English, which is combined with his Pashto, Urdu and Punjabi, “but my parents and their parents from long ago came from the Mohmand district of Afghanistan.” If you take the road to Landi Kotal or even the old train to the Pakistan border, Mohmand district is the land that passes beneath you; and such is his situation, Tayyab has never been able to visit his ancestral home.
“I was a leg spinner until I was 13, then my coach Babu Irfan at Peshawar Academy one day saw me bowling left-arm and he advised me to play 10 overs with a tennis ball with one hand every day and then 10 overs. with the other hand.» Which Tayyab says he duly did. He also abandoned the leg spin in favor of a non-spin spin, but perhaps he could revive it and thereby beat all forms of spin.
Tayyab said that he does everything else right-handed and does not know a single left-hander in his family, which all lives in Peshawar. Snell said: «T is more accurate left-handed, but Tom Smith thinks his shot shape is better and he gets more hits on the ball.» There doesn't seem to be anything special about this, whereas other spinners who have tried to bowl with both hands, such as Sri Lankan Kamindu Mendis, have been clearly stronger and better using one particular hand.
Mohammad Tayyab can easily adapt to both right- and left-arm bowling. Photo: Nick Treharne for Telegraph
The special thing about Tayyab's bowling is the way he moves across the crease. He lives in Cardiff and, when he's not studying IT at Cardiff and Wales College, makes his living through another form of delivery — Uber Eats. But because electric bikes are banned in the Welsh capital, he rides a regular push bike: it's good for his thighs.
Tayyab is eligible for a British passport in 2027, when he turns 23. remain status. As for his future on the field, Snell said, “His awareness is growing. Attacking the ball on the field with one hand is good if there is run-out, but absolutely not when the batsmen are not trying to run. I look at him as a long-term project and think he has a great future ahead of him as a 20-plus franchise bowler.”
Given that England's spin bowling resources are less than what they currently have. Tayyab's bowling, ever existing and much more subtle than any other department of their cricket, may have wider application.
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