Ahmed set to become England's youngest men's test player
Cricket
Ahmed set to become England's youngest men's test player
KARACHI (Reuters) - All-rounder Rehan Ahmed is set to become England’s youngest men’s test cricketer after being named in the side for the third test against Pakistan.
Ahmed will be 18 years and 126 days old on Saturday when the final test match of the series kicks off in Karachi. That will beat the mark set by Brian Close, who was 18 years and 149 days old when he played a test for England in 1949.
Ahmed has featured in only three first-class matches for Leicestershire - taking nine wickets and making 195 runs. He will replace Will Jacks.
In the only other change from the second test, Ben Foakes comes in for James Anderson.
Captain Ben Stokes had told reporters on Thursday that Rehan was an exciting talent but one they would have to nurture.
"Having a wrist-spinner is always exciting, especially for England, but it’s not getting too carried away with the potential that he has," he said.
"Because he is only young, and you’ve still got to nurture talent, no matter how exciting it is."
England won the first test by 74 runs before grabbing a 26-run victory in the second to register their first series win in Pakistan since 2000-01, but Stokes said they will press to become the first test team to complete a 3-0 whitewash in Pakistan.
Pointing to England’s 3-0 series win in Sri Lanka in 2018, Stokes said his side would not take the foot off the pedal.
"We won that series before the last test and there was even more put on to it, knowing that we could become the only English team to register a whitewash in Sri Lanka," Stokes told reporters.
"So, although the series here is done and we’ll still lift the trophy at the end regardless of the result, there’s still an extra bit knowing that we could be one of the very few teams that could walk away from Pakistan with a whitewash series."
England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Ben Foakes, Rehan Ahmed, Ollie Robinson, Mark Wood, Jack Leach.
