Twitter Reactions: Fawad Alam makes a comeback to Pakistan Test side after more than a decade

It has been a story of incredible hard work, toil, patience, anger channelized into motivation and years of persistence with the belief that all of it will translate into a national call-up, one day. And, after ten years and one month of relentless persistence and consistent performances, the moment finally arrived for middle-order batsman Fawad Alam when he was named in the Pakistan squad for the upcoming historic Test series against Sri Lanka at home.

In the past few months, as Pakistan’s batsmen were struggling, calls for a Fawad Alam’s recall were growing louder. His statistics, records, and his quotes were a regular trend on social media. So, naturally, with the 34-year-old’s recall, fans, as well as pundits, went on overdrive mode on social media. Some were a downright delight while others were relieved that Alam finally got his much-deserved chance.

Fawad Alam’s comeback story is of relentless patience and hard work

When Fawad Alam last played a Test match, none of the current Fab-Four in Virat Kohli, Steven Smith, Kane Williamson, and Joe Root had made their Test debut. Sachin Tendulkar was still some time away from his retirement, India was still two years away from becoming the first side to win a World Cup on home soil and Pakistan was the reigning T20 World Champions.

2009. It was November 2009 when Fawad Alam last turned up for the Pakistan cricket team. That was against New Zealand and now 10 years and one month later, with lots of runs (12,000+ at an average of 56.57) behind him, Alam will again return to the set-up against a team he also happens to have made his debut hundred- Sri Lanka.

He has never been the one to get bogged down with disappointments. He persisted and persisted relentlessly until it was almost impossible to ignore him, something he had alluded to in his recent interview to Shahid Afridi. “I take it as a challenge and motivate myself that it’s ok if I didn’t get a chance this year, I’ll perform again in the next season.

“And, it’s okay that I am not getting the chance to play for the country, my performances in domestic cricket are getting recognized at the world level, and I am very grateful for it,” the left-hander said in an interview to Shahid Afridi to the latter’s’ Youtube channel. And, 7th December 2019 turned out to be the day when it became impossible to ignore Fawad Alam.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: