Aamer Jamal stepped up when Pakistan needed someone to put his hand up in the first innings of their first Test against Australia in Perth. Pakistan’s bowling unit looked thin on paper in the absence of injured Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi did not help the team’s cause on the opening day as he was scratchy on the opening day after Australia won the toss and opted to bat.

At 27, Aamer Jamal was expensive in his first spell as he looked a bit overawed by the sense of occasion on his Test debut. However, the right-arm pacer grew in confidence after picking up the wickets of centurion David Warner and Travis Head on the opening day. Jamal was oozing confidence on Day 2, getting the ball to move off the seam.

AUS vs PAK, 1st Test Day 4 Updates

Aamer Jamal bowled a series of unplayable deliveries to knock off the likes of Alex Carey and Mitchell Starc and ended up with a 6-wicket haul in his debut innings. His figures of 6 for 111 were the sixth-best return for a Pakistan bowler on his Test debut. Bowling 9 overs in the second innings, Aamer Jamal added one more to his tally as he and fellow debutant pacer Khurram Shahzad grew in confidence.

Reflecting on his journey on the morning of the fourth day of his Test debut, Aamer Jamal said he worked hard to prove a few naysayers wrong, recalling the times when people around him told him to give up on his dreams.

Aamer Jamal faced rejections on multiple occasions as he was not able to make it to the Pakistan U23 squad. The fast bowler played cricket in Sydney before driving a taxi there to make ends meet.

‘STOP PLAYING CRICKET’

“Lots of people were pushing me to stop playing cricket and (saying) ‘there’s no hope’. I said ‘no, there is always hope’. You have to go for it, You have to work hard for it. You have to work harder than others,” Aamer Jamal told Channel 7.

“Yes, I played Pakistan U19 and I couldn’t make it to first-class cricket for 4 years. I decided to move to Australia to play a couple of games here. I decided to play for Hawkesbury in Sydney in the New South Wales Premier League. I played 4 or 5 months here. And then I heard the Pakistan U23 tour is going to happen. I wanted to go there and represent my country again. I went back to Pakistan, and didn’t get a chance in the U23 team.

“After that… our financial situation was not that strong. So I hired a car from a bank lease. I started driving a taxi. It was too hard to manage my time in terms of getting enough room for practice. It was hard to keep my dream alive to play for Pakistan,” he added.

Jamal’s cricketing odyssey began in the dusty fields of Mianwali, where he first showcased his talent in inter-region Under-19 tournaments. In 2014, he made waves with an impressive 30 wickets at an average of 16.96 in five matches. Despite this early promise, his career faced hurdles as he struggled to make a mark in the U19 series against Afghanistan, leading to a period of obscurity in the lower tiers of domestic cricket.

Undeterred by these setbacks, Jamal continued to hone his skills, and his persistence paid off when he made his first-class debut in 2018 for Pakistan Television. Here, he picked up 17 wickets at an average of 28.82, slowly clawing his way back into the selectors’ view.

Pakistan have a proud history of producing high-quality fast bowlers and, at a time, when the senior national side is looking to manage the workload of their star pacers better after criticism over injury breakdowns, young guns like Aamer Jamal have an opportunity to shine and keep the selectors interested.