Mukhtar Ahmed - United States - Batsman

Mukhtar Ahmed hails from a small village in Sialkot who admires Virender Sehwag for his free-flowing and fearless style of cricket. He always had great aspirations for cricket since adolescence and earned a call for the national duties at the age of 22. He fancies playing T20 cricket, but like every other cricketer he wants to cement his spot in the longer format of the game.

Mukhtar's parents, initially, were petrified about their son's future as the Sialkot-lad, more often than not, seemed to have spent his time playing cricket. However, Mukhtar didn't give up, he hired a cricket coach (Shahid Rafeeq) to fix his technical aspects of the game. Since Shoaib Malik went to play Champions League T20 in 2012, Mukhtar received an opportunity to play Haier National T20 Cup for Sialkot Stallions and ended up as the best all-rounder of the tournament. He amassed 195 runs and claimed 7 wickets before he was selected as one among the top ten players (in the tournament) to spend 3 days at the NCA.

Since then he sustained the motivation to play for his country and finally got one during Pakistan's tour of Bangladesh. Thereafter he featured in every T20I game Pakistan played so far (till 12 August 2015). He made two half-centuries in his first three T20I games and is hoping to seal a spot in the ODIs and Tests. He is a handy leg-spinner but is yet to bowl in the international arena. Going by his talent, he certainly is a bright prospect for Pakistan.

By Raju Peethala