File picture of Saqib Mahmood© AFP
England fast-bowler Saqib Mahmood has lastly been granted his visa for the facet’s upcoming white-ball tour of India, beginning with the T20I collection opener in Kolkata on January 22. A report in Day by day Mail mentioned Mahmood was informed on Thursday morning that his visa was granted and he’ll have the ability to be a part of the remainder of England’s touring occasion, along with his passport anticipated to be again with him later within the day. The event means Mahmood will have the ability to board the identical flight as his England teammates, with the vacationers anticipated to reach in India on Friday.
Beforehand, it emerged on Monday that Mahmood was nonetheless in England and his flight to attend a pace-bowling camp within the UAE, the place he was to affix Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, and Mark Wooden alongside fast-bowling mentor James Anderson, needed to be cancelled as a result of his passport nonetheless being there with the Indian Embassy, regardless of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) initiating his paperwork nicely prematurely.
The delay in Mahmood getting his visa in time is a well-recognized problem for England gamers with Pakistani heritage. Final 12 months, off-spinner Shoaib Bashir was compelled to fly again to London on the eve of England’s five-match Check collection towards India as he needed to receive his visa, which saved him out of the primary recreation in Hyderabad.
Leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed was held in coming into Rajkot for the third recreation as he solely had a single-entry visa. Mahmood additionally confronted points in getting his Indian visa twice – he had to get replaced in an England Lions squad for the India tour six years in the past as a result of a delay within the course of. An analogous motive had resulted in Mahmood not travelling to a Lancashire pre-season camp in India held final 12 months.
Mahmood, 27, was named Participant of the Collection in England’s white-ball tour to the West Indies in November final 12 months. On the tour of the Caribbean, he picked 9 wickets in three T20I matches and broke the document for probably the most Energy-play wickets claimed by an England bowler in a males’s collection.
Subjects talked about on this article
