LONDON: Pakistan pacer Hasan Ali has touched down in Manchester, where he will be representing Lancashire county as an overseas player.
The 27-year-old pacer will be available for six county championship games, starting with Lancashire’s fixture against Kent at Canterbury later this week. Hasan is eyeing to pick England’s James Anderson’s brain and will be asking a lot of questions from the legendary bowler.
Speaking at the club’s press day, Hasan – currently No.15 in the ICC Test rankings for bowlers – told ESPNcricinfo that he would “take a lot of wickets” and that he was excited to be back at Emirates Old Trafford, the ground where he made his T20I debut in 2016.
“Honestly, it’s too cold for me,” he said, laughing. “But yeah, I have to adjust. I would like to thank the Lancashire management for the opportunity. I’m very excited and looking forward to sharing the dressing room with their players; obviously we have Jimmy Anderson, so I’m very happy and very excited.
He said, “Honestly, I never spoke with him before. But now I’m going to have a lot of questions to ask him. I’m going to disturb him. [Laughs] We know he’s a great bowler. He swings the ball both ways. I’m going to learn how he swings the ball both ways, especially the cross-seam ball. I’m going to learn it.”
Hasan briefly played with Saqib Mahmood, another of his new team-mates, for Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League, and spoke to him on Monday morning about conditions at his new home ground.
“Saqib spoke with me this morning,” he said. “He told me the ball reverses here. We know how to reverse the ball as Pakistan bowlers, since childhood, we used the reverse-swing because they’re tough conditions for the bowlers in Pakistan, dry conditions. It’s similar here. I know the weather is chill, but the square is dry and the wicket is dry so hopefully I will get some reverse.”
“I played with Saqib for Peshawar Zalmi. He’s a good guy, an exciting player. He just got his Test debut and I’m happy for him. [In the 2021 PSL] he was the best bowler when he left the team. He couldn’t come back [for the second half of the season in the UAE], but he’s a good player,” he added.
Hasan is one of nine players already in England following Pakistan’s multi-format series against Australia, with a tenth, Shadab Khan, due to arrive for a stint with Yorkshire in the T20 Blast after their ODIs against West Indies in June.
Many Pakistan players have been in high demand for the 2022 season as the Babar Azam’s men won’t be playing any international fixture in the next two months. Hasan sees this as a good opportunity for Pakistan as they will gain valuable experience.
“We have nine or ten players who are going to play this season and I think that’s a very good thing for us as a unit. We’re going to get a lot of experience from here and we’ll put it into our domestic and international cricket,” he added.
