Pakistan vs. England: Leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed surprises England

MULTAN:

Abrar Ahmed, a debutant mystery leg-spinner, startled England on Friday, taking 7 wickets as the visitors reached 275-9 at lunch on the first day of the second Test in Multan. Abrar became the 13th Pakistani bowler to capture a fifer in his debut.

In the first two hours, the 24-year-old – is called “Harry Potter” by pals because he wears spectacles similar to the famous child wizard dismissed by Zak Crawley (19), Ben Duckett (63), and Joe Root (eight) before sending Ollie Pope (60) and Harry Brook (nine) on their way.

England scored 180-5 at the end of the first session, with Ben Stokes and Will Jacks contributing 14 and 0 runs, respectively. The session was a total departure from the previous Test, where England hammered 174-0 by lunch on the first day, in terms of wickets.

Before him, Muhammad Zahid Nazir Jr., Bilal Asif, Arif Butt, Tanvir Ahmed, Shahid Afridi, Shahid Nazir, Wahab Riaz, Yasir Arafat, Shabbir Ahmed, Muhammad Sami, and Noman Ali held the record for Pakistani bowlers to register a fifer in their Test debut.