Perhaps it is to be expected that, as a wrist-spinner, Rehan Ahmed can send you one way and then the other. As he sat on the roof terrace of the team hotel in Visakhapatnam discussing two compelling Test matches, his time in this England team, and how faith comes before cricket, there was a maturity beyond his 19 years but also the fearlessness of youth.
The latter was in abundance on the third evening in Vizag when, his work with the ball complete and six wickets from 41 overs in the match, Ahmed was seen taking throwdowns on the boundary’s edge. With 14 overs to negotiate at the start of an ultimately thwarted tilt at 399 to win, Ahmed had approached his captain, Ben Stokes, and head coach, Brendon McCullum, about coming in at first drop if a wicket fell, rather than the other way around.
