‘If anyone’s ready at that age, he is’ – James Anderson backs spin sensation Rehan Ahmed ahead of Second Ashes Test at Lord's

England seasoned pacer James Anderson backed young spin sensation Rehan Ahmed to star against Australia ahead of the second Ashes Test, slated to begin on Wednesday, June 28, at the Lord’s in London. Notably, the 18-year-old Leicestershire leg-spinner was included in the Test setup as cover for Moeen Ali, who suffered an injury to his spinning finger.

18-year-old Rehan relished a memorable debut against Pakistan in Karachi in 2022, when he returned a magnificent five-wicket haul. Rehan found limited success for Leicestershire in this season’s County Championship, as he picked mere six wickets in ten outings. Despite this, he has been a promising cricketer as last seen in his solitary appearance against Pakistan.

With this, pacer Anderson insisted that the spinner has the potential to play a vital role for the side and can do a great job with the ball, if given a chance.

“If anyone’s ready at that age, he is. He’s got a really good head on his shoulders, done really well in all forms of cricket when he’s come in - he learns quickly, he’s got the skills to be able to play at this level and he’s got the temperament to do it as well. If he did get the ball thrown to him, I’m sure he’d do a great job,” Anderson was quoted as saying by the ‘Daily Mail’.

Speaking about Moeen Ali, the veteran spinner has suffered a number of injury problems throughout his career, with the most common one being the blow to his finger. This concern resurfaced when Moeen struggled to bowl on Day 3 of the first Ashes Test, as he had a blister on his index finger due to which he has been confined to the sidelines. Meanwhile, Rehan is likely to feature for the remainder of the series as a backup.

Updated squad for Lord’s Test: Ben Stokes (c), Rehan Ahmed, Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood