12-08-2025
England think Rehan Ahmed's batting is special — is he next Test all-rounder?
A lfonso Thomas, the Leicestershire head coach, was in no doubt. 'I am amazed they chose [Liam] Dawson ahead of Rehan [Ahmed] for the Old Trafford Test. I believe that if England had him bowling there they would have come out on top in that game.'
Obviously, leeway must be granted for a coach promoting his own player, but the question of whether both England and India might have been better off playing a wrist spinner in that drawn fourth Test is an interesting one. Kuldeep Yadav's absence from the India side throughout the series was certainly a mystery, and could England have selected 20-year-old Ahmed or even Calvin Harrison, the Nottinghamshire leg spinner who has spent time on loan at Northamptonshire this season?
The next game at Old Trafford after the Test match was a County Championship match that Glamorgan won, mainly thanks to the efforts of leg spinner, Mason Crane, who took six for 19 in Lancashire's first innings and a further three wickets in the second innings. That, though, was on a pitch where the ends had been left bare, so a very different surface from the one on which the left-arm spinner Dawson was unable to take a second-innings wicket in the Test. It was, however, a surprise to see Dawson bowling Oval Invincibles' Tawanda Muyeye on the first night of the Hundred with a lovely, slower 50mph turning ball when there had been no sign of such variation during the Test.
