At Aisha Leather Factory in a small village near Sialkot, a frail fourteen-year-old goes through his daily grind of stitching metallic buttons on jackets and purses. He is the main breadwinner of the family earning a decent sum to take care of his parents and his six other younger siblings. It is not an easy job and the overpowering acrid stench of leather is suffocating. But Abbas does not complain, willing to grind it out because it is the only way to escape from poverty.
Thirteen years down the line, Mohammad Abbas has worked his magic with the leather on the cricket field stifling batsmen with his nagging line and length. A staggering fifty nine wickets in just ten test matches has meant the Pakistani pacer now has the fourth best bowling average in the history of Test cricket. All the three bowlers ahead of him in terms of better bowling average played in the 19th century.
Those days in the leather factory were tough but working in the sweatshop taught me the virtue of patience. I have learnt the hard way not to give up even if the things were not going your way.Mohammad Abbas
Abbas is fresh from helping Pakistan win the second Test against Australia in Abu Dhabi and clinch the series. The 28-year-old bagged 17 wickets in the two match series on slow and docile tracks in the UAE prompting Dale Steyn to proclaim that Abbas is well on course to become the new number one bowler in the world.
“I see a new number one Test bowler coming... Mohammad Abbas,’’ tweeted Steyn during the Abu Dhabi Test.
Yet to drop hints of becoming a world class bowler, Abbas while working in the leather factory was creating waves in his village of Jethike, thanks to his wicket taking abilities with the tape ball.
“We had regular tape-ball tournaments all across the state of Punjab and Abbas was sought after by most clubs,’’ reminisces Mohammad Shafiq, a childhood friend of Abbas who grew up playing cricket with him.
Even in those days, he had the uncanny knack of picking up wickets with his immaculate length. He also had a great slower one which was very difficult to read.Mohammad Shafiq, Friend of Abbas
Cricket provided not only a momentary breather from the stuffy surrounding of the factory, it helped Abbas make money by playing these tournaments. “He had to look for excuses to take a break for a few hours from his duties at the leather factory to turn up for various local tournaments,’’ remembers Abdul Rauf, another of his close friends during his growing years from his village.
Cricket was soon becoming a raging passion for young Abbas.
Our village did not have enough grounds and the unwritten rule was whichever team arrived at the ground earliest would get to play the games in the morning. To ensure his team would get to play the matches in the morning, Abbas would actually arrive at the ground after midnight and sleep there.Abdul Rauf, Friend of Abbas
By this time, Abbas had left his job at the leather factory to try his hand as a welder. This involved working in a company which made iron grills and gate. A steady income still proved elusive and he then joined a law firm where he worked as a clerk.
While he was already creating a buzz at the district level, Abbas’s first big break was an under-19 inter-region game in 2008 which pitted his Sialkot side against Rawalpindi.
While Abbas was the bowling mainstay of Sialkot, a gangly Mohammad Amir led the Rawalpindi attack. Riding on 11 wickets from Abbas, Sialkot went on to win the match by seven wickets. Despite the hype surrounding Aamer, Abbas was the star of the match. Aamer would go on to make his international debut a few months later while Abbas would languish in virtual oblivion.
While making his first class debut in 2009, returns of Abbas were nothing striking and it needed a couple of years before he found his groove.
Those years of struggle were also tough. We friends got together and arranged for his stay in in a factory close to Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore so that he did not have to spend too much money on travelling. He did not even have money for food.Abdul Rauf, Friend of Abbas
Abbas finally struck gold during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons at the Qaid-e-Azam trophy, the domestic first class competition in Pakistan where he emerged as the leading wicket taker for two successive seasons.
His impressive bounty of 61 wickets in 2015-16 and 71 wickets the next season from just 10 games made him a strong contender to break into the national side. In 2017, he dismissed the then Pakistan captain Misbah ul Haq in both innings of a domestic game and soon found himself on the flight to the West Indies.
He announced his arrival on the big stage with a bang, dismissing Kraigg Braithwaite off his very second delivery in a Test match.
“I had to be patient and waited for over 8 years before I got my Test cap. The rigours of playing domestic cricket on different surfaces were my ideal learning ground,” says Abbas savouring the adulation of being the latest pin up boy of Pakistan cricket.
I idolised Glenn McGrath. It was his accuracy that attracted me and that has been the hallmark of my bowling. I know if I bowl wicket to wicket, three modes of dismissals come into play – leg before, bowled and even a catch.Mohammad Abbas
The 28-year-old admits he is not lightning quick with his deliveries clocking around 135 kilometre per hour but he is not losing sleep over it.
My line and length is my greatest weapon and I do not want to make any change to my bowling to enhance speed.Mohammad Abbas
He has found success in England where he helped Pakistan win a Test match at Lord’s. He followed it up with a successful county stint with Leicestershire. There is a clamour in Pakistan cricket circles to include him in the one day side with an eye on the 2019 World Cup in England.
Former coach of Pakistan and one of the legendary fast bowlers Waqar Younis feels Abbas deserves a call up in the one-dayers and the forthcoming series in South Africa is a perfect opportunity to blood him with the white ball. “He has an uncanny knack of picking wickets early on in his spell and Pakistan should exploit it,’’ says Younis.
Life has moved on a fast lane for Abbas and if his career continues to follow the upward trajectory, he could well be Pakistan’s trump card in the next year’s World Cup. Someone Virat Kohli and his Men in Blue need to be wary of.
(The author is a television producer working with different sports networks in India and abroad. He has extensively covered previous editions of Asian Games and Commonwealth Games for both print and television.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)