India vs Pakan: Abdullah Shafique’s journey from adoring Virat Kohli and facing defective leather balls to his country’s next big batting hope | Cricket-world-cup News

In 2002, during one of his two annual visits to Sialkot, Shafiq Ahmed saw his three-year-old son, Abdullah Shafique, playing with a plastic bat. Shafiq senior, himself a former first-class cricketer from Pakan, couldn’t believe how natural his son was. He took him out in the backyard of their house and started to give underarm throw downs. Never did his son play a cross-batted shot.“I was surprised. The session lasted for one and half hours before my wife took him away,” Shafiq tells The Indian Express from Dubai.
The 57-year-old, moved to UAE in the early 1990s. He has been involved in coaching for the past 30 years but unfortunately, because of his work, he was never able to give full-time coaching to his own son. However, he doesn’t regret it at all.
“I moved to Dubai to play the club cricket. My cousin Arshad Ali was playing for UAE. I became a coach. I noticed something is special about him when he was three. Let me be very honest: I guided him but I was never his coach. he managed everything on his own. I do try and give my inputs, but it is all his hard work,” he says.
Pakan’s Abdullah Shafique celebrates his century during the ICC Cricket World Cup match between Pakan and Sri Lanka in Hyderabad, India, Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/ Mahesh Kumar A.)
Growing up, Abdullah would watch Virat Kohli’s videos on YouTube, when he was just starting to make his name in international cricket. Abdullah will pick everything his idol would do, even Kohli’s ‘helmet twitch,’ after he used to hit a boundary.
“He adores Kohli. In the early 2010s, he will google everything about him. What he eats, his fitness regime, what he doesn’t eat. His head position, his elbow, the helmet twitch, Virat used to do. He will get sad when he fails. You can’t blame him … Koi Virat se bada player is generation mey hua kahaan (For this generation Virat Kohli is the greatest cricketer),” recalls Shafiq.
Abdullah, given a tag of red-ball cricketer after a few failures in the ODIs and T20Is early on, has shown his class with a sublime 113 against Sri Lanka in Hyderabad in the World Cup. With that knock, he has solved Pakan’s headache at the top order. He was excellent during his 52 against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup as well but the Pakan team wanted to given Imam-ul-Haq and Fakhar Zaman a go, since they were a settled pair.
On Friday, probably playing the biggest match of his career in Ahmedabad, Abdullah will have a chance to meet his idol and perhaps even show his batting masterclass to Kohli and the 100,000 spectators in the crowd.
“I hope he goes and talks to Virat. He is a shy kid. I hope someone will push him to do so,” says Shafiq.
The talent was always there in Abdullah, but he mastered it with facing 500-600 deliveries every day with defaulted leather balls. Shafiq narrates the story of why he never bought his son a perfect leather ball.
“At Sialkot, the original leather ball would cost 400 PKR, and he will change the shape of it in a week. He was 16, when he got picked for the Sialkot U-19 team. I rushed to a friend, who has a manufacturing factory. While I was negotiating with him for the cricketing gears, I saw a few defected balls, lying at one corner. Out of curiosity, I asked him how much for those. He says these are useless, if you want I can give it to you for 100 bucks. I bought 300 balls and went home,” he says.
“Playing with the defected balls, improved his technique. The ball will hit the seam and will climb on him, because most of the balls the seams used to be disrupted. He became watchful,” he adds.
That’s where the concentration and temperament in Abdullah’s batting came from.
However, Shafiq wants his son to score at least 10,000 Test runs after the start he has got. He doesn’t want him to play too much T20 cricket. Shafique has made over 1200 runs in just 14 Test matches for Pakan at a superb average of 50.83 with four hundreds, including a double.
“The future is T20 cricket and nowadays, every professional cricketer wants to play franchise cricket. He loves Test cricket but he wants to do well in T20 cricket as well. He is a part of Lahore Qalandars for the past couple of seasons. I sincerely, hope the T20 will not corrupt his technique. Test cricket se bada kuch hai kya (Is there anything bigger than Test cricket,” says Shafiq.
Abullah’s 113 off 103 against Sri Lanka has earned him plaudits back home. Former Pakan pacer Shoaib Akhtar would go as far as calling Shafique similar to national team captain Babar Azam.
“Babaz Azam jaisa hume ek aur player mil chuka hai (we’ve found a player just like Babar Azam),” said Akhtar on his Youtube channel.
Former Pakan skipper Misbah-ul-Haq would also credit Shafique for shouldering the run-chase against Sri Lanka. Misbah said: “Abdullah Shafique – the Test cricket he’s played, his technique – he displayed all of it. The most important thing though was his reading of the game, which we don’t normally associate with our players when they come at the international scene.”
However Shafiq rates his son’s 160 not out at Galle Test against Sri Lanka, his best knock so far.Most Read
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“I am not exaggerating it but I have never seen a Pakani cricketer playing that kind of a knock on that kind pitch in the fourth innings, chasing 342 runs. He remained unbeaten on 160, faced 408 balls, curbed his attacking instinct, and helped Pakan win the match four wickets. I will rank that knock above any ODI or T20 century he will ever score,” laughs Shafiq.
Shafiq never watches his son’s batting. He only watches the highlights, if he has done well, then he will watch the replay, make notes and then give his input to his son.

“I will switch my phone tomorrow. I will go somewhere. I generally don’t watch his batting. I have spoken to him a couple of times. He is enjoying India. He is hungry to do well, and I hope he gets to see some horical places in that beautiful country. I have been to India four times, I have so many friends in Delhi and Mumbai. I hope he makes friends as well,” he says.