New Delhi: Pakistan leg-spinner Sajid Khan ran through the England batting order in the ongoing second Test match in Multan. The off-spinner recorded his career’s second best figures of seven for 111 to help the hosts clinch 75-run lead in the first innings after England were bowled out for 291.
Despite Ben Duckett leading the fight for the visitors with a sublime century (114 off 129 balls), Sajid Khan’s brilliance with the ball put Pakistan back into the game on the second day.
He removed the likes of Duckett, Ollie Pope, Harry Brook, and Joe Root on Wednesday before adding the scalps of Brydon Carse, Matt Potts and Shoaib Bashir en route to his second five-wicket haul in Test cricket. The wicket of England’s most run-getter, Joe Root, was a dream dismissal for the player from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Sajid was one of the four changes Pakistan made after a humiliating defeat in the first Test despite notching up more than 550 runs. The 31-year-old has played eight Test matches before troubling the Englishman, having made his Test debut in 2021 against Zimbabwe in Harare. He has picked up 32 wickets in 16 innings at an average 33.28 with the best figures of 8 for 42 achieved against Bangladesh in Dhaka in 2021.
Sajid Khan’s struggling journey to cricket
Sajid Khan is a son of a late Pakistan army personnel. He was raised by his mother and credits her for the determination and daunting efforts put behind their family. Sajid comes from Mardan district in the northwestern Khyber Pankhtunkhwa province. He has two brothers, one of them drives rickshaw and the other runs a grocery shop, as the player revealed in a conversation with the Pakistan Cricket Board after registering his Test career-best figures in Pakistan.
He was passionate about cricket, but struggled to find a place in the Khyber Pankhtunkhwa squad because of immense competition in the region after his U-18 days of competitive cricket. As a result, he moved to Dubai to find opportunities there.
He would work five days at an airport in a week and remaining days would follow his passion to play cricket. He returned to Pakistan even before the completion of his six-month visa tenure to further pursue cricket. He was selected in Grade II selections in the very first attempt.
Sajid was helped by Imran Khan senior to acquire a pair of shoes. Encouraged by this gesture, Sajid was pumped up to perform at the competitive level. He picked up six wickets against Peshawar in a match.
“Once the domestic structure was revamped, I got an opportunity to play for the Second XI and I scored 96 runs and took 13 wickets in a match against Balochistan,” Sajid told PCB three years ago.
Sajid has played 67 First-Class matches in Pakistan’s domestic cricket, besides playing 38 List A matches. He isn’t a regular in T20 cricket, having played only nine matches with his last appearance coming for Peshawar in the National T20 Cup in December 2023.
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