Bipin Dani
Pakistan’s new fast bowler Tabish Khan is ten years elder to his captain Babar Azam. The 36-year-old right arm fast bowler Khan made his recent Test debut against Zimbabwe at a time when the other players thought of retiring at this age.
‘Age is just the numer. The player should continue to play as long as he is fit’, his elder brother Shahrukh, who also played cricket (opening batsman and off-spinner) in Pakistan, said exclusively over the telephone from Karachi.
Tabish took the wicket (of Tarisai Musakanda) in his very first over in Test cricket.
Interestingly, Shahrukh learnt the news about the inclusion of his brother in the final eleven at a time when he was reading the Quran in the graveyard where his father (Jamil-ur-Rehman Khan) was last placed to rest.
‘My father was also a fast bowler and his support has helped us a lot to become professional cricketers’, Shahrukh, who has been a coach in Kent and Essex in England, added.
His students are representing U-11, U-13 and U-15 teams in English counties. ‘It was my father’s dream to see Tabish play for the country but since he is no more, but must be watching his son from the graveyard’.
‘We have seen swing bowlers in this game, but my brother Tabish can also bowl reverse swing. He is the only bowler in Pakistan who can reverse swing’.
Tabish Khan has many mentors. One of them is Azam Khan, who has been working with the Gladiators team in the Pakistan Super League (PSL). Azam Khan also moulded Fakhar Zaman and a few others who are playing for Pakistan.
