Due to a delay in obtaining his visa, Saqib Mahmood will have to miss an England training camp in Abu Dhabi before their white-ball assignment in India. As England’s fast-bowling consultant, the renowned James Anderson will lead the training camp.
Before the rest of the team departs for Kolkata on Friday, January 18, to play the opening Twenty20 International in a five-match series that begins next week, the ECB anticipates that the problem will be settled.
Saqib is not the only Pakistani-born English player to deal with this problem.
A delay in obtaining his visa prevented Shoaib Bashir from playing in the first Test match between India and England in Hyderabad last year.
By the way, Mahmood had a similar experience six years prior when he was dropped from an England Lions team that was going to tour India due to visa problems. Anticipating a similar result, he chose not to seek for a visa prior to Lancashire’s 2024 preseason trip.
Adil Rashid and Rehan Ahmed, the other two players with Pakistani ancestry, have apparently already obtained their visas.
Prior to the India tour, Mahmood was scheduled to join Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, and Mark Wood at the pace-bowling camp in Abu Dhabi. He was unable to go, though, because he had to turn in his passport as part of the visa application procedure.
In November 2019, the 27-year-old made his debut. He has only participated in two Test matches, nine ODIs, and eighteen T20Is, though. Mahmood missed a significant amount of time due to back-to-back lower-back stress fractures that he sustained after earning his first Test cap in 2022. He was the standout player in the T20I series against the West Indies in the Caribbean in November and delivered a spell that won the match in the Hundred final last year.
The Birmingham native was named Player of the Series after taking nine wickets at an average of 10.56 in four games. Prior to the first Twenty20 International, which will take place at Eden Gardens on January 22, England would be hopeful that the right-arm pacer can reach India.
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