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9 JOIN OUR MAILING LIST FOR ALL THE LATEST: TRENTBRIDGE.CO.UK/MAILINGLIST FARHAN AHMED GOD’ S PLAN Farhan Ahmed’s emergence as a professional of promise was one of last year’s most compelling county cricket stories. But while he may already be accumulating plaudits at pace, it is a maturity and sense of perspective that shine through as he prepares for the domestic summer. STORY BY Oliver Mooney & Matthew Freeman A s Farhan Ahmed strode from the field, match ball held aloft, after taking seven wickets in his first innings as a Nottinghamshire First-Class cricketer, he found the sport’s spotlight focused on him for the very first time. There had already been a helping of hype – the suggestion that he may be a player of more potential than elder brother Rehan, who broke into the England team at 18. There had been the age-group successes – no fewer than 128 wickets across two summers of pathway cricket in 2021 and 2022. And now, there was the proof of the pudding – a scene-stealing performance against reigning champions Surrey on his first outing in Notts whites. Indeed, in taking ten wickets in the match as a 16- year-old, the debutant broke a record that had stood for well over a century, held by a certainWG Grace. Quite the list of credentials for a player born after the invention of the iPhone. But Ahmed, you sense, is taking each milestone in his stride. The spinner is speaking from Cape Town, where he is preparing for a second unofficial Test against South Africa’s Under 19s, having taken nine wickets in the first fixture at Stellenbosch. And it is an unwavering belief in his abilities that shines through as he relives his breakthrough moment. “Having played against Leicestershire in the Metro Bank (One Day Cup), I was very grateful to have made my first-team debut; I didn’t expect to get into the first-team in the red-ball stuff at all,” he recalls. “I had just played a couple of twos games, including one against Zimbabwe when I took nine wickets in the match.Then, when we were two days into a red-ball game against Leicestershire, Mull (Steven Mullaney) told me that I was needed back at Trent Bridge because I was in the first-team squad to face Surrey. “Then the day before the game, Mooresy told me that I was going to play.We walked around the outfield for a talk, and he told me that although this part of the season was often seen as the time for trying out younger players, I was being selected because they believed that I would improve the team and impact that game.