Imran Khan Jr ready for Pakistan call-up

He shares his name with a cricket legend, but Imran Khan junior will hope to carve out his own place in international cricket when he travels to Zimbabwe with Pakistan’s Twenty20 squad this month.

The uncapped left-arm medium pacer is not the son of the legendary allrounder, nor is he related to the Imran Khan who made his Test debut against Australia last year.

This Imran Khan hails from Swat, is 27 years old and has attracted a lot of attention since playing a pivotal role in helping Peshawar win back-to-back titles in Pakistan’s premier T20 tournament – the Haier Twenty20 Cup – this month.

One day after that final, Imran received a call informing him he had won a place in Pakistan’s T20 squad – a step he said he was ready for.

“Wherever you play cricket you need to be mentally strong for it. If you are mentally strong then you can play cricket anywhere in world, therefore I believe I am ready to play international cricket,” Imran said.

“There is no better feeling than playing for your country. I want to play for Pakistan.”

Swat, a district in Pakistan famous for tourism and delicious fruit, is part of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, which has produced 16 Test players for Pakistan including Younus Khan and Umar Gul.

However, Swat itself is yet to produce an international cricketer – a trend which will change should Imran make his Pakistan debut against Zimbabwe later this month.

It would be a landmark moment for the Swat Valley and its people, who have endured a turbulent time since a battle between a Taliban-led insurgency and the Pakistan Army late last decade forced more than two million people – Imran included – to evacuate the region.

It is also the region where schoolgirl blogger Malala Yousufzai was attacked in 2012 for campaigning in favour of women’s education.

Malala was critically injured but survived the attack and since then her campaigns for female education have received worldwide recognition. At 17, she became the youngest-ever winner of a Nobel Prize in 2014.

Success has not come easily for Imran, who started his cricket career with a tape ball in the Swat Valley before he and his family fled to Swabi for shelter during the army operation.

He returned home once peace was established in the valley in 2009.

“When I got the opportunity to play the leather-ball cricket I didn’t let it go,” Imran said, paying credit to Swat’s District Cricket Association for his success.

Imran started making waves in Pakistan cricket circles 12 months ago, when he led the bowling table in the national T20 tournament in Karachi with 12 wickets.

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This September, he again led the wicket-taking, this time with 16 scalps, and his efforts helped Peshawar – a team boasting just two international players– take out back-to-back T20 titles.

He also produced some interesting feats along the way, bowling a hat-trick maiden in the final over of an innings against Karachi Blues, dismissing three international players – Sarfraz Ahmed, Fawad Alam and Anwar Ali – in the process.

In the tournament final, he bowled four dot balls to Pakistan T20 captain Shahid Afridi before conceding a single on the fifth ball.

“I wanted to bowl at least one over to Afridi. I wanted to test my variations against him,” Imran told cricket.com.au.

“He is the most powerful hitter in the world, therefore I wanted to see if I could survive against his powerful hitting. It was a great feeling.”

If Imran does make his international debut in Zimbabwe, expect to see a different style of bowler to notable southpaws produced by Pakistan.

He does not have the pace of Wasim Akram or Wahab Riaz, he does not generate as much bounce as Mohammad Irfan, and he does not rely on the new ball like Junaid Khan.

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He is a shrewd medium-pacer who challenges batsmen with his variations – in a way similar to Bangladesh’s Mustafizur Rahman – and his biggest challenge in international cricket will be making sure batsmen cannot decipher him.

“I always read the batsman first. After I figure out his strength I find ways to bowl against his strength,” he said.

“Having control on your variation is the main art. If you have control on your variations then you can be successful in any situation.”

Even if Imran is not named in Pakistan’s T20 squad to play Zimbabwe on September 27, he has the talent and potential to earn a cap in the near future.

When it does happen, it will be a momentous occasion for both Swat and Imran, who also draws inspiration from his famous namesake.

“My favourite hero in cricket is Imran Khan,” he added.

“He is the only player who I idolise, because his way of playing cricket taught me how to handle the difficult situations.”

“Although I am not named after him, the name always instils passion in me.”