Farhan Ahmed, the 16-year-old brother of England leggie Rehan, has made history as the youngest bowler to take a five-wicket haul in the County Championship.
Aged 16 years and 189 days at the start of the game, Farhan beat the marker set by Derbyshire’s Hamidullah Qadri, who took 5-63 against Glamorgan on his own debut in 2017. Qadri was 16 years and 203 days old when he began that game.
Farhan had already set a record as Nottinghamshire’s youngest County Championship player, having represented the county once in the One-Day Cup earlier this season and featuring for the second XI as a 14-year-old in 2022. He has already earned England representative recognition, taking 3-87 in England Lions’ victory over Sri Lanka ahead of the ongoing Test series, and taking the record as England U19’s youngest player when he made his debut against Ireland last summer. He signed a professional contract for Notts earlier this summer.
The youngster dismissed Test players Rory Burns, Ben Foakes and Will Jacks en route to a five-for, keeping the run rate down as Surrey racked up a score in excess of 500. He conceded just over 2.76 runs per over, while none of his teammates went at under three.
He finished with figures of 50.4-6-140-7, dismissing centurion Sai Sudharsan (105) as the final wicket of the innings.
Brother Rehan has also made waves for impressive cricketing feats at a tender age. He became England’s youngest Test cricketer when picked to face Pakistan in late 2022, taking five-for on debut. He has since gone on to represent England in all three formats.
Farhan Ahmed, the 16-year-old brother of England youngster Rehan Ahmed, has been given a County Championship debut for Nottinghamshire.
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) August 29, 2024
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Unlike Rehan, however, Farhan is an off-spinner. “You don’t want two leg-spinners in the same team,” Rehan explained to the Telegraph in 2022. “If we want to play for England, we’re going to have to do two different things.”
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