After Nauman Ali became the fourth oldest striker to draw five wickets in the first inning, ESPNcricinfo did a bit of digging on the man who was fired to fame near night.
Where is it from?
Nauman Ali was born in Khipro, a small town in a subdivision of Sanghar district in the interior of Sindh, connected to the eastern Indian border in front of the Thar desert. Nauman spent his childhood in Khipro until the age of 14, with no cricket in sight, until his father’s work brought the whole family to Hyderabad, meaning access to a reasonable cricket infrastructure around Niaz Stadium.
Nauman is a Punjabi, with Attock roots from his family, but grew up largely in Sindh. He is the only one of his eight brothers to play competitive cricket, with the others not arising from recreational baseball cricket. Nauman made his bachelors in a trade from Latifabad and is an alumnus of the Fazul-ur-Rehman cricket club in Hyderabad.
His uncle, Rizwan Ahmed, who played ODI for Pakistan in 2008 against Zimbabwe, was instrumental in getting Nauman to go to cricket badly. Nauman started out as a fast archer, but because of the dry weather in the city, he was turned into a left-arm spinner, giving him a better chance to push himself.
Rizwan Nauman helped rebuild what he did, while his older brother Faisal Ali (now based in Scotland) and regional coach Iqbal Imam helped him to spin the ball. Imam in particular was an influential man for most local cricketers; for five decades to 2019, approximately 16 districts fed directly into the national cycle.
Is Nauman the first ever cricketer from inside Sindh to play Test?
Excluding the metropolitan city of Karachi, Nauman is only the second player from the remaining Sindh districts to have represented Pakistan in red-ball cricket. Sindh has 95 seats with a total population of 47.89 million, with Karachi alone covering 20 million. Not surprisingly, Karachi, with a bigger and better cricket infrastructure, has taken most of the sporting opportunities.
Inside Sindh, meanwhile, has been ravaged by poverty and lack of basic necessities. Sports, including cricket, are not usually a priority in the rural area of the province.
Nauman grew up playing on dry and gloomy open fields in his hometown, with no clear path to the national tour until he moved to Hyderabad, Sindh’s second largest city with a population of over six million. .
How did he finally make it into the national tour?
When the Nauman family emigrated to Hyderabad, the success story of his uncle Rizwan sent him into cricket. Rizwan, now based in Pennsylvania, played 18 years of domestic cricket until 2016 as a field, receiving 9634 runs and 189 wickets (including 7225 first-tier runs at 35.94 and 135 wicis). Rizwan got the chance to represent Pakistan in 2008 when Shahid Afridi took a break for the final ODI against Zimbabwe, with the team already leading the series with a 4-0 lead. However, he only scored four goals without a wicket and did not bat.
Rizwan has never played for Pakistan again, but his short international spell made many waves back home in Hyderabad, where the locals were celebrating. Before Rizwan, Faisal Athar was the only other local player to appear for Pakistan, playing ODI against New Zealand in 2003. Like Rizwan, Father never entered the national side again.
However, their international events turned out to be local heroes, and they both became advisors for the small cricket community in the city that revolves around Niaz Stadium with Fazur ur Rehman cricket club as the home team. aca.
In 70 years of cricket, so far only four players from Sindh (except Karachi) have represented Pakistan. Prior to Nauman, opener Sharjeel Khan represented the country in one Test, 25 ODIs and 15 T20Is before losing a place in the side in 2017 for his position in spot position.
Nauman did not come under the spotlight in 2018, where he has been since 2007?
Nauman began his career in 2004 at under-19 level, playing inter-divisional games for Hyderabad. Over the next three years, he would play more than 150 games at both inter-regional as well as inter-regional level. In 2005, Nauman was selected by United Bank Limited under the auspices of Azhar Mehmood, to play in the PCB Patrons Cup. He stayed with the team for four straight seasons until 2008, but he couldn’t help but deserve first-class cricket.
Nauman had also spent more than five seasons playing league cricket in the UK, including four consecutive seasons in the Bradford JCT 6000 Cricket League. He was then signed by Khan Research Laboratory after Saeed Ajmal left for ZTBL in 2009. Nauman spent 10 seasons with KRL, playing 47 games and picking up 145 wikis at 21.66, including 43 scalps in 2018 alone.
In 2004, he began playing under-19 sub-division for Hyderabad, and spent the next three years playing inter-divisional to inter-divisional level, collecting more than 150 games. He was selected by United Bank Limited under the auspices of Azhar Mehmood to play the PCB Patrons Cup (level 2) in 2005 and remained with them for four seasons until 2008, but this side could not qualify for cricket. of the first degree. He had also spent over five seasons playing cricket league in the UK with four consecutive seasons in the Bradford Cricket League JCT 6000. He was signed by Khan Research Laboratory after Saeed Ajmal left them for ZTBL in 2009. He played 10 seasons immediately after for KRL, picking up 145 wikis at 21.66 (43 in 2018 alone).
Why did he only play 47 games over 10 seasons?
During his time at KRL between 2009 and 2018, the team had a special fast bowling unit consisting of Sadaf Hussain (221 wickets at 18.92), Yasir Ali (182 at 21.86), Yasir Arafat (167 at 17.20 ), Mohammad Abbas (132 at 14.61) and Rahat Ali (between: 2009-2015: 125 at 20.71).
With such a strong bowling line up, Nauman didn’t have too many chances to make the XI and missed out on playing full seasons until 2018-19, when he played eight games to pick up 43 wickets at 14.20.
Nauman was only selected for Pakistan at the age of 34 after spending 14 years playing world-class cricket. Since 2018, it has produced 158 wikis at 21.48, which makes up 55.5% of its first-class draw.
He has been in the system since 2007 and in the first 11 years of his career, he managed to remove just 134 wikis, mainly due to lack of opportunities and being on the bench for over half a quarter. But when he got his last chance, he made the best of it. Last year alone, Nauman lifted six five-pointers and three 10-wicket yards to become an inevitable choice for Pakistan.
How did he do that?
There are two features – throwing the technical side of his game, and the nature of the pitches on which he played. In the past three years, Nauman has played 17 games out of 28 on Karachi pitches, where he took 104 wikis. He also refreshed his bowling style with the kookaburra ball, which does not have the sharp and raised seam to help spinners. But Nadeem Khan, a veteran of 534 first-class wikis, said not to rely too much on the surface, but to go with the spin by reversing the ball in the air at the time of their release. Nauman had then bowled with speed, skipping the ball by tapping the seam without controlling his field position.
His time with Multan Sultans in 2018, with Nadeem around as franchise manager, helped Nauman rework his bowling by pulling the distance behind the ball and the use the air instead. This fundamentally changed his approach and made him more effective with the member than he was in the first 11 years of his career.
Could this mean Pakistan could be left behind for away trips?
This remains to be seen. Nauman’s recent wickets were taken while playing in much drier conditions: UBL Complex Karachi (58 at 18.15), NBP Sports Complex Karachi (31 at 20.06), Karachi National Stadium (30 at 30.86). But at the same time, he has taken the highest number of wickets – 61 at 22.32 – playing at his home field at KRL in Rawalpindi, a green top center.
Pakistan has made horse policy suitable for courses, with spinners taking the lead on home soil. Outside of Pakistan, it ‘s too early to promise him a place in the playing XI, but he looks set to make the squad bigger. Yasir Shah, with his international experience, is still a major spinner, but Nauman is here to stay as a wicket watcher, at least in England. Fitness, according to him, is kept active and that is the element he would like to stay in the mix for longer.
Umar Farooq is a Pakistani journalist at ESPNcricinfo