Meet the future star of Pakistan cricket from Chitral

Pakistan has a rich history of producing some of the greatest cricketers in the past and cricket has now become more than just a game in the country.

If we take a look in the current team, a few cricketers such as Babar Azam, Shadab Khan and Hasan Ali are a hope and show a bright future in the game. But let's keeping them a side and have a look at the recently concluded ICC under-19 World Cup.

Although, Pakistan suffered a humiliating defeat against India in the semi final, but this doesn’t mean it is the end. The Men in Green reached to the semis of the tournaments with a few noticeable performances from young individuals - Muhammad Musa being one of them.

Musa, who is from Chitral, began his cricketing journey from school level and at the age of 16 in 2016, he joined the Islamabad Gymkhana Cricket Club.

Pakistan’s bowling star suffers due to lack of speed

“I was always interested in bowling fast and when I first bowled at the club I didn’t know much about what length to bowl at and so bowled some short deliveries and hit one batsman on the ribs and another on his helmet; the coach quickly took the ball away from me and asked me to go easy with that type of bowling,” the 17-year-old told Pakpassion.

He was selected for the North Zone District U9 team after trials in the same year, however, he was not given a chance to play in the first inter-district game.

“I was so disappointed at this point that I was literally in tears as I thought I had no chance in the future,” Musa stated.

Following that setback in early stage of his career, he was invited in Regional U19 trials. “I bowled with all my strength to scare a few batsmen. The selectors looked at my bowling and said that my selection was a must and I suppose my career took off from that point,” the pacer said.

He played nine matches during the Inter-Region Under-19 One-Day and Three-Day tournaments and took 28 wickets.

After performing in Regional U19s, he got selected for Under-19 Asia Cup which was held in November of 2017. “I was asked to play in all 5 games that Pakistan played, where I took 9 wickets at an economy rate of 3.71. This made me the highest wicket-taker for Pakistan Under-19s in this tournament.”

Speaking about the recent World Cup, he said, "It was an amazing experience taking part in a tournament like the U19 World Cup."

“Representing one’s country is always special but being in the World Cup was truly amazing. As for our performance, well it was disappointing as we felt that we were doing really well until we played against India in the semi-finals and lost,” the right arm pacer added.

During the U19 World Cup, he managed to bowl close to 147Kph. “I asked the officials and some experts about my bowling and specifically about any issues with my bowling action or run-up as I want to make sure everything is perfect with my bowling and they all told me that I was fine. These experts also said that if I continue bowling like this, I had the potential to increase my pace even further within one year. I have full faith in myself to achieve better speed with my bowling and God Willing will show more improvements in the future.”

He thinks that bouncer is his most effective weapon and one that can get me wickets. Apart from that he can bring the ball into the batsman which can cause problems for him and also result in inducing false shots.

Referring to the role models such as Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar, the pacer said, “These bowlers have done wonders for our country and I would like to do the same for Pakistan one day, God Willing.”