Shadab Khan

Shadab Khan born in 1998 in Mianwali has already created ripples with his leg-breaks, and more than ripples with his wrong'uns at the Under-19 level. Hailing from the land of stalwarts like Imran Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq, Shadab moved to Rawalpindi at the age of 12 and started picking up the nuances of the sport whilst playing for his school team. He further accelerated his growth and whilst training at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore, and gathered some valuable wisdom from former greats like Abdul Qadir and Mushtaq Ahmed.

Shadab was rising through the ranks and polishing himself up alarmingly fast, and looked all set to be a stereotypical precocious talent from Pakistan. He was promptly selected for the Under-19 World Cup in 2016 and he rewarded the faith of the selectors by topping the wicket charts in the tournament, picking up 11 wickets from 6 games at a commendable average of 19.

Unlike the modern limited-overs spinner, Shadab bowls with a more loopy trajectory and uses his wit and guile to fox the batsmen in the air. He uses the crease well bowling from close to the stumps as well as from a wider angle, to make the batsman recalibrate his eye-line. His consistent performances ensured defending champions Islamabad United drafted him in for the second edition of the PSL. Shadab impressed immediately with his wily variations and flight and ended the campaign with 9 wickets from 8 games. In addition, he maintains high levels of fitness and is a terrific fielder at point, in stark contrast to the stereotypical stick-to-your-thing Pakistani spinner.

Shadab had done enough to prompt the selectors who awarded him a with T20I cap against the Windies in March 2017. He embraced his opportunity as well, with figures of 4-0-7-3 on debut, which won him the Man of the Match award, and the distinction for the most economical spell on T20I debut. He already has 3 such awards in his first 10 T20Is. He also has one man-of-the-match award in ODIs for his 3-wicket-haul and a composed fifty, in the course of which he exhibited maturity beyond his years and pulled off a nerve-wracking chase against Sri Lanka.

He was also a part of the Pakistan team that won the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 in England. He was given a Test cap against the West Indies the following month, in which he took just one wicket. However, the teenage prodigy is certainly an excellent find for Pakistan and, if honed properly, a potential great in the making.

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by Cricbuzz Staff
as of December 2017