‘He wants England to do well but…’ England cricketer reveals his father's love for Pakistan cricket team ahead of Rawalpindi Test

England and Pakistan are set to play each other in the third and final Test match in Rawalpindi. Rehan Ahmed has been recalled into the team, along with Gus Atkinson, for the game starting on Thursday. Brydon Carse and Matthew Potts have been rested for the game. 

Rehan Ahmed was England’s youngest-ever Test debutant during the last tour of Pakistan in 2022. The young English spinner hasn’t played for his national side since the tour of India earlier this year. 

The youngster revealed how much his father gets affected whenever any team beats Pakistan. During his chat with BBC’s Test Match Special, Rehan Ahmed said, “We scored over 800 runs against Pakistan, and my dad left the stadium and went home, which was four hours away. He couldn’t see this team getting anything out of the contest.”

The English star spinner added, “He tried to hide, but I can tell you that he doesn’t want Pakistan to lose. He always wants England to do well, but he doesn’t want us to do that well where his favourite team ends up losing the match.”

England set to go in with three-spinner ploy in Rawalpindi 

After including Rehan Ahmed in the team, England will use three spinners for the final match. Shoaib Bashir and Jack Leach had already played the first two games and Ahmed’s inclusion is to use the rank turner that is expected for the final Test. 

Harry Brook, speaking on the eve of the game was quoted by ESPN Cricinfo, saying, “They've had the rakes out, the fans and the heaters on the pitch. Everyone goes and looks at the wicket and says something different… Hopefully, it's just like any other Pakistani pitch. It's good to bat on for the first few days and then hopefully, we can get a bit of turn out of it at the back end of the game."

The English batter expects the conditions to favour the home team before the massive game starting on Thursday. “I think the conditions are going to be a little bit different. We played on an extremely flat pitch here last time. It was awesome to bat on, and we scored a good rate of knots. This game's probably going to be slightly different. It might turn earlier on: who knows? It might be a good pitch to start with and we get off to a flyer," he said.