Rehan Ahmed, England’s 19-year old leg-spinning all-rounder, has left India for personal reasons.
Ahmed played in the first three Tests of the series, but was forced to play in the fourth Test at Ranchi after England opted for Shoaib Bashir’s fingerspin on a track thought to be susceptible to Turns on the opening day. He was left out of the England eleven for the Test.
Ahmed, who made his debut on England’s tour of Pakistan last winter at the age of 18, took 11 of his 44 wickets in three series appearances, taking six wickets and contributing a vital 64 runs for Hyderabad’s Vizag. He knocked in the second Test with Ollie Pope in the seventh wicket stand, which England eventually won by 28 runs.
England decided not to name a replacement for Ahmed, leaving Bashir and Tom Hartley as the only frontline spin options left in the squad. Jack Leach had already been ruled out of the tour before the third Test at Rajkot. England also refused to choose a replacement for Leach. England have further spin options in their squad in Joe Root and Dan Lawrence, both of whom provide more than useful off-spin.
<iframe Loading=”lazy” style=”border-radius: 12px;” src=”https://open.spotify.com/embed/show/1XeleYXleZeyGRpmoG2Nzw?utm_source=generator” width=”100%” height=”232″ Frameborder=”0″allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen”></iframe> ;
The fifth test will be held at the Dharamshala venue, which is expected to be the most seafarer-friendly venue among the five venues in this series.
Ahmed becomes the third English player to withdraw from the tour. Harry Brook himself withdrew from the series for personal reasons before England landed in India, while Leach was limited to one appearance in the series after injuring his knee in the outfield in the opening game of the series. . Leach’s injury left England with an extremely inexperienced group of spinners, with Ahmed, Hartley and Bashir having played only one Test match before the start of the tour.
Subscribe to the Wisden Cricket YouTube channel for post-match analysis, player interviews, and much more.
