The 14-year-old batting rising star Muhammad Abbas has been enjoying the success with the bat and he is rising against the tide at such young age to impress the cricketing fraternity in Auckland.
The right-handed batsman Abbas has already notched up seven hundreds to leave a significant impact in the cricketing front of Auckland cricket.
Abbas plays for which club:
Technically sound, Abbas, who is the son of bowling coach Azhar Abbas, is concurrently playing for the Eden Roskill Cricket (ERC) club and is expected to break into the premium domestic club of the Kings College’s first XI.
“I’ve not heard of anyone at his age having done that, and they have been good centuries,” Abbas was quoted as saying by New Zealand Herald.
However, Azhar has already represented the domestic side Auckland Aces in the domestic circuit.
While representing in the district tournament, Abbas had been shaped up by his father Azhar, which further saw the former delivering according to the expectations as the occasional blips forced him back in nets – to sweat it out during the long season and subsequently plug in the loopholes.
“He has got me playing under my eyes…I used to push out of my reach a lot, and was getting caught behind,” Abbas said of Patel.
The former cricketer Dipak Patel who is serving as the coach of Kings College believes, Abbas has been splendid with the bat and he is a treat to watch on the cricketing field.
“He is obviously very talented but there are always good kids coming through,” Patel asserted.
When Abbas struck hi first hundred:
At the age of 11, Abbas went on to register a magnificent hundred at Lloyd Elsmore Park while representing a Western team in Auckland against the Central side.
Interestingly, beyond the coaching instructions, Abbas has done wonders with the bat and his footwork has been doing waves in the New Zealand fold at such an age when the aspiring youngsters are looking to go under the rigorous coaching programme.
“Sometimes I will see him play a particular shot and it looks to me that he has missed the ball. Somehow at the very last moment, he does something not just to manage the situation, but to manipulate it in his favour,” Abbas asserted.
In the year nine competition in Auckland, Abbas went on to score at the average of whopping 110 which saw him scoring at the strike-rate of 125 when he smashed two hundreds.
“My dad has given me the motivation…and he makes me work hard,” Abbas said.
Auckland, one of the major cities for New Zealand has witnessed the exciting bunch of cricketing talent which further saw the players from Asia becoming the focal point and one such example in the contemporary cricket is the 25-year-old Ludhiana-born leg-spinner, Ish Sodhi.
Following the magnificent rise of the youngster, Abbas has scored runs at will and his father Azhar is proud of son’s achievements at such an age while remarking the former has worked hard to excel.
“Other people think what he is doing is extreme but I just say that he is a good player for his age. But seven centuries is very unusual,” Abbas concluded
There are many players like Abbas, who have worked on their game in a bid to deliver big in the foreseeable future.
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