Pakistan Under-19 legspinner Shadab Khan's choice of words left journalists befuddled in Mirpur when he was asked about his bowling action. He simply meant his action was pretty unique and he had not modeled it on anyone he had grown up watching. Before you could come to terms with what he said, added that legspinner he wants to follow is Steven Smith.
Shadab has been puzzling oppositions the same way in the World Cup and is Pakistan's second most valuable player so far, after allrounder Hasan Mohsin. Shadab is the team's highest wicket-taker with a tally of nine at an astonishing average of 9.33 and has been jolting oppositions' middle orders after Mohsin does the early damage.
Shadab likes to flight the ball. He is not exactly a product of his times in which spinners often rely on mystery balls, flat trajectories and focus more on limiting the runs in one-dayers, instead of taking wickets. Shadab likes to take wickets and it is a reflection of who he grew up watching.
"I used to keep watching Shane Warne take wickets on TV," Shadab said. "So when I started cricket I decided to become a legspinner."
In his run-up, Shadab comes in from wide of the crease and suddenly gets close to the wickets, just like Warne, to either bowl a tight line and length or get some drift before the ball turns. It has worked very well on turning pitches in Bangladesh as he has picked wickets in every match so far.
Against Afghanistan, he picked up four wickets for only nine runs in five overs, against Canada he finished with 2 for 44 from 10 overs and against Sri Lanka he sealed Pakistan's victory by finishing with 3 for 31 in 8.4 overs. Most of his dismissals have been caught and he stumped one batsman in each of the three matches.
One of the biggest surprises about Shadab is he did not have a proper coach during his childhood. He was born in Mianwali, a city in north Pakistan that has produced the likes of Imran Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq. But Shadab hardly played any cricket there. He started taking the sport seriously after he moved to Rawalpindi at the age of 12 and then represented his school team. Since then, he has climbed one ladder after another and when at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore, he got tips from Abdul Qadir and Mushtaq Ahmed.
"Khud hi hoon (I am my own coach)," Shadab says with a laugh. "When I started cricket I did not know much, but then slowly I gained experience, came to NCA. They (Qadir and Ahmed) used to tell that as a legspinner it is important to give flight if you want wickets."
Shadab made his youth Test and ODI debuts last October against Sri Lanka and returned with 7 for 146 in his first outing. He picked wickets regularly in the one-dayers too and was Pakistan's highest wicket-taker in a tri-series involving Australia and New Zealand in Dubai in January.
"I did well in whatever chance I got," Shadab said. "It's just that I was not getting many breaks there. The focus was just to bowl in right line and length and the batsmen will give their wickets."
So far, he has been helped in some way by the pitches in Sylhet and Mirpur but for the quarter-final against West Indies on Monday, he might have to use his wrist more to extract turn on the flat Fatullah pitch. If he can do that successfully, he might even become the highest wicket-taker of the series. He is currently joint third even though the two above him - pacers Saqib Mahmood and Rory Anders - have played more matches than him.
