Cricketers are usually chosen to play for their national side after consistently good performances in first-class matches. However, there are instances where players have been inducted into test cricket after minimal first-class exposure. There are eight Pakistani Test players who have been drafted into the Test team after playing only three first-class games or less.

Heading the list is Yasir Ali, whose Test debut was also his first-class debut. A right-arm medium fast medium bowler, Yasir had played for the Attock Under-19 team in Grade 2 domestic competition where his performances earned him selection for a Pakistan Cricket Academy side to tour South Africa in August 2003. Barely a week after his return from this tour he was selected to play for Pakistan against Bangladesh in the third Test at Multan. He was not yet eighteen years old at the time. His debut performance was inauspicious as he took a single wicket in each Bangladesh innings for 43 and 12 runs respectively. His batting was limited to just 5 balls and he remained not out with zero in each of the two Pakistan innings. Yasir never played Test cricket for Pakistan again, though he enjoyed a reasonably successful fifteen year first-class career in which he took over 250 wickets.

The next player on the list, Miran Baksh, had an interesting career. His father was the chief groundsman at the Pindi Club Ground and Miran Baksh developed an interest in the game while helping his father with his duties and became a skilled off-spin bowler. He would provide practice to batsmen in the nets and played in local club matches. However, after the creation of Pakistan events took a totally different turn. The West Indies were the first international team to tour Pakistan and the forty one year old Miran Baksh was chosen to play for the NWFP Commander-in-Chief’s Eleven in a two day match against the visiting team at the Pindi Club Ground. He justified his selection by taking 5 wickets for 61 runs which included the famous George Headley and Clyde Walcott. When a Commonwealth team toured Pakistan the following year Miran Bux was again selected for the Commander-in-Chief’s Eleven for another two day game against the visitors at the Pindi Club Ground. He put in an outstanding bowling performance, taking five wickets in each innings for match figures of 10 for 82.

His first-class debut came a few weeks before his 43rd birthday when he again played for the Commander-in-Chief’s Eleven against a visiting team from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1950. In January 1955, after playing a solitary first-class match, and at the ripe age of 47 years and 284 days, Miran Baksh was chosen to play a Test against the touring Indian team. He was the second oldest cricketer to make his Test debut after Jim Southerton’s 49 years and 119 days. It was an uneventful initiation and he only bowled in India’s first innings taking 2 wickets for 82. Miran Baksh played in the next Test as well, which was his last appearance for Pakistan. His Test career figures were 2 wickets for 115 runs. He continued to play first-class cricket till the age of 51.

Tauseef Ahmed had also played only one first-class match when he was selected to represent Pakistan against Australia at Karachi in February 1980 in the opening Test of a three-match series. His entrance to the Test team had an almost fairytale story behind it. He was recommended to the new Pakistan captain Javed Miandad, who agreed to let him bowl at the Pakistani batsman in the nets. Tauseef’s considerable turn created problems for established batting stalwarts like Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad and Majid Khan. Miandad was sufficiently impressed to induct him into the playing side and the 21-year-old Tauseef responded with seven wickets in his first Test appearance. Tauseef’s Test career spanned 34 matches in which he took 93 wickets at 31.72 runs apiece.

Aamer Nazir, a fast medium swing bowler, was 22 years old when he broke into the Pakistan side. He had played Grade 2 matches in the local domestic tournaments in the 1992-93 season, where his outstanding performances brought him to the notice of the selectors. He was called to the national training camp for deciding the team to tour the West Indies in 1993. Strong recommendation by the captain Wasim Akram, ensured his final selection, despite having no first-class experience under his belt. The tour began with a 5 match ODI series and Aamer played in four of these. In his very first ODI he claimed the wickets of Richardson and Hooper off consecutive balls and was denied Logie’s wicket and a hat-trick due to what Geoffrey Boycott called an umpiring error. His first-class debut came soon afterwards in Pakistan’s match against the West Indies Board President’s Eleven, and this was followed by his first Test appearance a few weeks later in the second Test of the series in Barbados. Aamer played a total of 6 Tests for Pakistan taking 20 wickets at an average of 29.85 each.

Two Pakistani Test cricketers started their Test careers with just two first-class matches behind them. Saleem Elahi had played for the Pakistan Under-19 side and had also represented Pakistan in ODIs with distinction, including a swashbuckling century on debut. However, he still did not have any experience of first-class cricket when he was chosen to tour Australia and New Zealand with the national side in the winter of 1995, at the age of 18 years. After two first-class matches against the state sides of West Australia and South Australia respectively, Saleem made an unimpressive Test debut in the opening Test at Brisbane. Saleem was never able to do justice to his talent and potential in the test format of the game. In 13 Test appearances for the national team he could only muster 436 runs at an average of 18.95 runs per innings.

Hasan Raza had also participated in just two first-class games when he was picked to play for Pakistan. His story is a remarkable one. In 1996 Hasan had tried out for the Pakistan squad for the Under-15 World Cup in England. He was selected and helped Pakistan to reach the final of the tournament. This was followed by a succession of high scores for Karachi in the National Under-19 tournament where he averaged over a hundred runs per innings. Though Hasan was not yet 15 years old, the chief selector, Zaheer Abbas, picked him to play for a Combined Eleven against the visiting Zimbabwean national team and Hasan scored an impressive fifty on what was his first-class debut. This was followed in his next first-class outing by a fluent innings of 96 from 152 deliveries for Karachi Blues against Karachi Whites in the Quaid e Azam Trophy and led to him being drafted into the Pakistan test side to play Zimbabwe in Faisalabad.

When Hasan made his Test debut against Zimbabwe, he became the youngest cricketer in Test history being only 14 years and 227 days old. A young schoolboy hoping to gain selection for Pakistan’s team for the Under-15 World Cup had gone much further and entered the annals of Test cricket. It was a dream start to a career that held so much promise and anticipation. Sadly, these expectations were never realized. Hassan’s Test career progressed in stops and starts and was limited to 7 Tests spread out over almost ten years. He scored a total of 235 Test runs for an average of 26.11 runs per innings.

There are also two Pakistani Test cricketers whose introduction to Test cricket came after just three first-class matches each. The legendary Wasim Akram is one of them. An all-round sportsman, Wasim used to take cricket casually, playing tape ball matches in his neighborhood. He was persuaded by a friend Khalid Mahmood to take the game seriously and join his club, Ludhiana Gymkhana, where he could play and practice regularly. Wasim took this advice and it completely changed his outlook. Incidentally, at this stage he was also a student at Islamia College but was not picked for the college side, being assigned occasional twelfth man duties. During a match between his club and Lahore Gymkhana, who had the services of players like Ramiz Raja and Intikhab Alam, Wasim bowling with pace and control, picked up four wickets and impressed all concerned. He was invited to a summer camp organized by the Pakistan Cricket Board and spent a month at the camp in Lahore followed by another month in Karachi. He received personal instructions and advice from Khan Mohammad, Pakistan’s famous paceman from yesteryears and now a leading coach. He was also noticed by the chief selector Haseeb Ahsan and by Javed Miandad during the Karachi segment of the camp. The result was an invitation to play for the BCCP Patron’s Eleven against the visiting New Zealand team. This would be his debut first-class match.

Wasim’s foray into the first-class world started on an exceptional note. He took 7 wickets for 50 in the first innings from 20.4 overs, being both lethal and economical. Two further wickets came in the second innings and a new bowling star had arrived. After another first-class match in the Quaid-e-Azam trophy, Wasim was called to the Pakistan training camp set up to choose the team to tour New Zealand in the winter. With strong support from both Miandad and Haseeb, Wasim landed a place in the selected tour party. Six months after being denied a place in his own college team, Wasim had made it to Pakistan’s national squad. He was only 18 years old.

A side game versus Canterbury was his 3rd first-class outing and preceded his selection for the test side for the second Test, where he made a modest debut. It was the next Test, however, that firmly established Wasim as a new fast bowling sensation on the international circuit. Five wickets in each innings and match figures of 10 for 128 signaled his unique pedigree. Wasim’s career went from strength to strength and he ended with 414 Test wickets at an average of 23.62.

The final cricketer on this list is another paceman Shaheen Shah Afridi. He arrived on the first-class scene with a bang. In the second innings of his opening first-class game in September 2017, he took 8 for 39 for Khan Research Laboratories against Rawalpindi and the impact was instantaneous. This was followed by a Quaid Trophy match against FATA and then a selection to play for Pakistan A against England Lions in the UAE. On the strength of these three first-class matches Shaheen Afridi was chosen to spearhead Pakistan’s pace attack against New Zealand within a few months of his first-class debut. Now established as a regular feature of the national side, Shaheen has played 17 Tests for Pakistan so far and picked up 58 wickets at 29.58 runs apiece.

Pakistan cricket is blessed with tremendous talent. It also has a tradition of giving early opportunities to young cricketers with exceptional ability. Adding a proper structure for identifying and grooming these gifted young men could easily take Pakistan to the pinnacle of the world game.

Dr Salman Faridi is a senior surgeon, poet, sports aficionado and an avid reader with a private collection of over 7000 books.

salmanfaridilnh@hotmail.com