‘Younger than Facebook, Strictly and T20 cricket’

Rehan Ahmed is younger than Facebook, Strictly Come Dancing and professional T20 cricket.

In cricketing terms, leg-spinner Ahmed has always done things in a hurry.

He was bowling googlies, flippers and sliders before the age of 10. By 11 he was dismissing England captains past and present, Alastair Cook and Ben Stokes, in the nets at Lord’s. A year later he was impressing the late, great Shane Warne.

Now, at 18 years and 126 days, he has played Test cricket at a younger age than any other man to pull on an England shirt. You have to go back to 1899 to find an England player with fewer than Ahmed’s three first-class matches on Test debut.

For someone used to moving through life at pace, Ahmed actually found his feet in Test cricket by slowing down.

Understandably, his first spell on the first day of the third Test against Pakistan in Karachi was a nervous one.

Looking a little rushed, his five overs in the morning session cost 37 runs. Leg-spin is the hardest art in cricket to execute at the best of times, let alone when you’re only four months into legal adulthood and bowling to Babar Azam and Azhar Ali, two of the greatest Pakistanis to ever draw back a blade.

Returning after lunch, Ahmed was relaxed and ready to rip.

He fizzed catches from right hand to left and tugged at the shoulders of his shirt as if he’d had to borrow it from a bigger boy. He walked two paces then scurried to the crease, unleashing flat leg-breaks and devilish googlies.

It was with the googly that Ahmed entrapped Saud Shakeel for his first Test wicket. After the left-handed Shakeel groped for one that turned away, the next ball, a leg-break, spun back in, took the inside edge and was caught off the pad by a diving Ollie Pope at short leg. Ahmed was mobbed.

Not the tallest, Ahmed grew in stature. He was the bowler when Babar was run out and Ahmed’s googly tormented Faheem Ashraf, who played so far down the wrong line he found himself on the Bakerloo when he should have been on the Circle.

For a long period, Ahmed out-bowled England’s number one spinner Jack Leach, but Leach nipped in for the three last wickets to end with 4-140 – the experienced old pro teaching the youngster how to feast on rabbit pie.

Still, Ahmed’s 2-89 made him the youngest leg-spinner to take two wickets in a Test innings for 17 years.

“It’s probably the best day of my life so far,” Ahmed told Test Match Special through an immovable smile.

“I was very nervous. It was nice to get rid of the first over, then slowly settle in.

“As time went on I felt way more comfortable, like it was a good place to be. I wasn’t thinking ‘do this or do that’.”

Ahmed’s day began with him receiving his England cap, father Naeem at his side, from former captain Nasser Hussain.

Hussain was skipper when England last played a Test in Karachi, in 2000. They had a leg-spinner in their side then too, even if it did turn out to be the last time Ian Salisbury played for England.

In the intervening 22 years, England have picked five other leg-spinners before Ahmed – Chris Schofield, Scott Borthwick, Adil Rashid, Mason Crane and Matt Parkinson. Only Rashid has played more than two Tests.

If English cricket has long dreamed of finding its own version of Warne, then the mass misunderstanding of leg-spin in our country is only matched by the collective failing to pick Warney’s flipper.

Luckily for Ahmed, he has a captain in Stokes and coach in Brendon McCullum whose entire ethos is built on removing pressure from players. They have made the prospect of failure less frightening than Winnie the Pooh after a couple of gins.

“There’s not too much pressure to perform, just to have fun,” said Stokes. “You only make your debut once, you can never make it again. If we can make him feel like he’s had a ball of a time out there and he walks off with wickets and runs, that would be great.”

Not that Ahmed is likely to be fazed by the challenge of playing at the highest level. Those who know him speak of his immense confidence, not to mention an insatiable desire to have a bat or ball in his hand at every possible opportunity.

During The Hundred, Southern Brave coach Mahela Jayawardene ordered Ahmed to take a day off from training. Ahmed snuck to the nets anyway.

Rahim Ali, Ahmed’s childhood mentor who now works with him at Leicestershire, told BBC Sport: “We were playing away against Northants. I was in the hotel and at about 11 at night I could hear balls on a bat.

“I knocked on the wall, then I messaged to see what room he was in – he was next door. He said he was trying his new bat for the following day.”

Perhaps the thing that came closest to knocking Ahmed off his stride came after the close in Karachi.

Saqlain Mushtaq, legendary spinner and now the Pakistan coach, was talking about Ahmed.

“It was a very impressive performance,” said Saqlain. “I really liked his control. The most important thing was his confidence. He has a lot of potential. He looks a really good prospect for the England team.”

Ahmed was listening at the back of the room.

“I didn’t want to hear that, it’s pumped me up a bit,” he said.

Ahmed might have to get used to it. This was a very promising start.