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Fawad solves mystery of his missing bat

Spinner Fawad Ahmed reflects on a hilarious episode in the Sheffield Shield and the moment he went 'viral'

Fawad Ahmed has been the most successful spin bowler in Sheffield Shield cricket over the past five summers, boasts the lowest economy rate of any Australian leg spinner in the Big Bash League over the same period, and claimed a wicket with the final delivery of his international career to date.

Yet thanks to the viral effects of a much-shared internet video, he is just as often remembered and recognised for his limited prowess with bat in hand.

Or, in the case of the famous clip that has earned him greater social media acclaim than his fizzing leg breaks or baffling wrong-uns, with bat conspicuously absent.

Fawad forgets his bat on Shield return

But until now, the back story to Fawad’s celebrated walk towards the wicket during a Shield match in Alice Springs in 2017 that was halted when he realised his bat was not making the trip with him has remained as deep a mystery as his potent googly.

The 36-year-old, whose 60 first-class appearances across more than a decade in his native Pakistan and his adopted homeland Australia yielded a top score of 23 (average 10.13), has revealed that it was a self-inflicted wound that diverted his attention moments before he was called to the middle.

And while acknowledging that the episode - which was followed by another bloopers’ moment months later when he walked out on to the Gabba with two batting gloves that both fitted the same hand - would live on in comic infamy, he cited mitigation for his initial lapse.


"The gloves thing happens all the time, you just grab the wrong ones especially when you’re in a hurry because we (Victoria) were losing a lot of wickets quickly that day in Brisbane," Fawad told cricket.com.au.

"And when you’re in a hurry, you can lose track and get mixed up.

"But the bat, that was a long partnership in Alice Springs and I was sitting there and waiting for my number to come up as the last batsman and I got a bit bored.

"So I got a blade, like a medical scalpel, and was playing with my bat and just cleaning it up when I cut my thumb.

"It was bleeding a bit, so I asked the team physio if he could put some tape on it, and while he was doing that a wicket fell and I had to get out there.

"Now my habit is that I tuck the bat into my armpit, and then I start fitting the gloves once I get on to the playing field.

"So I was being very cautious because I had tape on my thumb, and I put one glove under my armpit and put the other one carefully on my hand as I walked slowly out.

"It was only when I had put the left hand into the glove, and then went to put on the second one that I suddenly thought to myself ‘wait, where’s the bat?’.

"So all my teammates were laughing, the Western Australia players in the middle were laughing, and before I knew it had been tweeted out by cricket.com.au and went viral.

"It’s got something like half a million views.

"It was good promotion for a bat sponsor I guess, but it was a bit of fun and gave people there at the game something to talk about.

"People still sometimes tag me in those clips, and every now and then I’ll watch it again – they are good memories that will continue for a long time.

"And hopefully one day my own child will see it on the internet, and have a laugh."