THE MAKING

So far yet so near - under Shafiq's watch rises Abdullah

Shafiq Ahmed (middle) with Abdullah (left) and second son Hasan (Picture courtesy: Shafiq Ahmed)
Shafiq Ahmed (middle) with Abdullah (left) and second son Hasan (Picture courtesy: Shafiq Ahmed) ©Cricbuzz

Shafiq Ahmed has been working in the UAE as a cricket coach for 30 years. These days, he gets to make two annual visits back to Pakistan. He comes over to Sialkot for two months in summer and again for two weeks in winter. Back in the early 2000s though, when his oldest son Abdullah was just 3, Shafiq would only see his family once every six-seven months. And it's an anecdote from one of these visits that he clearly loves narrating every time he gets asked about Abdullah. To the extent that you can almost picture Shafiq beaming with pride on the other side of the phone as he recalls it.

"I'd just come back and saw Abdullah shadow-practising with a plastic bat. He hadn't seen me yet and I spotted him with the perfect stance, getting his front foot perfectly and pretending to play a front-foot defence. I couldn't believe it. He looked like a kid who'd been training for three-six months. I immediately asked my wife if Abdullah had been playing cricket with someone."

"She didn't know what I was on about. She just looked at me quizzically and said that she'd bought him the plastic bat only a couple of days earlier. She was even more puzzled when she saw me break into a smile immediately. I'd never believed that sporting talent could exist in someone's blood till that moment. I realised my boy was a natural. I'd come across kids who couldn't do what he was even after months of proper training."

Shafiq's next move was to call his brother, UAE international Arshad Ali, right away and inform him about this discovery. Cheerily, Shafiq and Arshad then began plotting the journey of young Abdullah who they were convinced could go all the way. And how right they were too.

"Naturally gifted" after all is a descriptor that gets used widely for the 22-year-old opener ever since he broke into Test cricket last year. And it's been evident too during this series against Australia, whether it's in the way he shapes up against the likes of Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins, or in the way he gets on top of Nathan Lyon. Already in his very brief career, Abdullah has displayed a variety of very impressive facets to his batting. There's the stubborn defence and solid technique during the 465-minute stay in the middle alongside captain Babar Azam during the great heist in Karachi. Not to forget the exquisite stroke-play during his breezy maiden ton a week earlier in Rawalpindi.

He was at it again on Day 2 of the final Test in Lahore, showing great discipline while leaving deliveries outside his off-stump even as Cummins kept honing in towards it. But also at the same time, using his feet expertly to Mitchell Swepson and delightfully punching him inside-out over the cover region for a boundary. And as the series has progressed, Abdullah has also begun to gain the admiration of some high-profile names in the opposition camp. That he's making an impression on the Australians is also sure to please the ardent Ricky Ponting fan a great deal.

The one aspect of Abdullah's cricket that Shafiq isn't too surprised by is the self-belief and confidence that he's always possessed. He believes it comes through not only in the way he plays the game but also in how he talks about it.

"As a cricket coach with so much experience, I do often slip in words of advice or inputs. It's not that he won't accept them but if he thinks that he'd got out to a shot that was the right one to play, he won't accept anyone saying it was a mistake. He's always had that about him. He backs himself to make good decisions while batting," the senior Shafiq says.

Shafiq, who spends most of his time training young cricketers at Gems Modern Academy in Dubai, had played a similarly instrumental role in brother Arshad's career after the two settled in the UAE during the 1990s. While he continued to plug away for various teams in Pakistan's domestic cricket-26 first-class games and 17 List A games in a career spanning 8 years-it was in his adopted land that he really made a name for himself as a cricketer.

"I was an opener like my brother and my son. I played under-19 cricket alongside Wasim Akram and Ijaz Ahmed in the 1980s. Arshad and I are the only brothers to score over 100 centuries each in the history of UAE domestic cricket. It was a special moment for the family when he went on to make his ODI debut against India in the Asia Cup of 2004."

Unlike with Arshad though, Shafiq had to guide his son's career remotely. Abdullah's first stop was at the late Amir Waseem's Academy in Sialkot. There he would make rapid strides, getting to train with the senior team even if he was still in his early teens. It didn't take long either for the stylish right-hander to get roped into the Sialkot under-16 team, where he was spotted by other former cricketers turned coaches.

"Like any other child, Abdullah would always ask me to come visit more often, but I just couldn't. Except for the odd occasion where he'd want a video game or a football, all he wanted was for me to be here. Whenever he went for trials, people would identify him as Shafiq's son and he would come back home and proudly tell his mother about it. I also remember him getting very excited by seeing his uncle on TV scoring runs against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka."

Shafiq though was by Abdullah's side when he got his first big break, being picked for the Sialkot under-19 team. It was during September a handful of years ago when 5-6 players in the original team had been found to be overage, automatically leading to the reserved youngster's inclusion.

"He'd been told his chance might come a year later since he was so young. But that was a huge opening. He wasted no time and scored a century on debut for Sialkot Region against Multan Region."

It would become a trend of sorts for Abdullah, scoring centuries on debut. He did so in his first games for the Pakistan under-19 team, a century on debut in T20s, and century on debut for Central Punjab in first-class cricket. And he came close on Test debut too against Bangladesh back in November last year, especially as Shafiq recalls, when he remained unbeaten on 57 overnight.

Uncle Arshad has kept an equally keen eye on Abdullah's growth and had even made him a promise a few years ago to buy his nephew a motorbike the day he'd become a first-class cricketer.

"It wasn't needed. Six months within that first-class debut, he was making his international debut against Zimbabwe," Shafiq says with a chuckle.

The proud father in Shafiq comes through as he starts rattling off the many important scores that Abdullah has made at different levels over the years with great detail. He points to one particular knock, when he made 200 in the second innings for Central Punjab to save the game, much like his marathon effort in Karachi last week.

He also jumps to Abdullah's defence about some early critics in the Pakistan cricket system who found the talented youngster to be a bit standoffish.

"He's just a very reserved boy. He's not the sort to be very social very early in every setting. That always gave some people the wrong impression that he was arrogant. But he'd always tell me he just doesn't like to talk about anything but cricket. He was never into any gossip or matters that are unrelated to his cricket. He's started opening up a lot more now, as you can see on the field. Even some of the Aussies seem to have taken a liking to him."

Shafiq also does credit former captain and coach Misbah-ul-Haq to have played a huge hand in Abdullah's rise. Misbah in fact had touted the opener to be successful against Australia even before the series in a TV interview.

Shafiq continues to work in the UAE and even if Abdullah might have grown a lot in stature over the years, he still sticks to an old practice, of bringing home 150 new cricket balls, like he always has. "Just in case, he never runs out of them." In addition to of course never being able to watch Abdullah play live.

"My heart rate goes through the roof if I have to watch him. I know there are other parents too like me but I've maybe watched 10 balls overall in Abdullah's career on TV while it happened. I watch all his innings through highlights later in the day, like I will today." And he'll do so with the same amount of pride as he did all those years ago when Abdullah stood shadow-practising with a plastic bat.

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