The ambidextrous Afghan taking English club cricket by storm

Introducing the first ambidextrous bowler in English cricket who can bowl right-arm and left-arm spin with equal effectiveness: Mohammad Tayyab Nasir, who plays for Bedminster CC in Bristol and turned 20 last week.

All season Tayyab – nicknamed ‘T’ – has bowled left-arm spin to right-handers in Division One of the West of England Premier League and off-spin to left-handers, and pretty well too. He is easily Bedminster’s leading wicket taker in this rain-abbreviated season with 32 wickets at 19 each and a strike-rate of one wicket every 24 balls.

Gloucestershire’s leading white-ball spinner, Tom Smith, also plays for Bedminster, one of the two leading clubs in Bristol, and when they play together in the same XI in the 50-over Premier League they have had remarkably similar figures.

“Tom, being a wily old spinner, knows how to manage an over but ‘T’ is more of a threat and spins the ball more,” said Steve Snell, Gloucestershire’s former director of cricket, who also plays for Bedminster and stands at slip for both spinners. In his few league games Smith has taken eight wickets at 24 and a strike-rate of one wicket every 30 balls.

People passing Bedminster’s ground at The Clanage as they played league-leaders Bath could have been forgiven for thinking they were watching through a mirror at certain stages. A short and stocky lad, bowling orthodox left-arm spin, had the Bath all-rounder James Arney caught at mid-off. Next ball, in the same over, he was beating the new batsman, a left-hander, outside off-stump with an off-break.

In between deliveries, while the new batsman was coming in, Tayyab had measured out a new run-up on the other side of the stumps and bowled a couple of practice deliveries to a team-mate. It is that simple for him to switch arms; and when he has warmed up with both arms, and a right-hander and left-hander are batting, he switches from one arm to the other at the drop of a cap.

“I’ve taken 14 wickets right-arm and 18 left-arm,” said Tayyab, a cheerful soul who has ear-lobes that incline slightly forwards. When Bedminster beat the league leaders by four runs, with no small thanks to his two wickets for 30 off 10 overs and 19 off 18 balls, it was noticeable that he ran in from deep square to shake hands with his opponents before celebrating with his team-mates.

Mind you, Tayyab does know the opposition quite well, Bath being the biggest and most-resourced club in the region. In their league game at Bath earlier this season the hosts needed 19 off their last two overs. The first, bowled by the Gloucestershire seamer Dom Goodman, cost 16. Tayyab, with three runs to play with, took a wicket and, with the aid of a run-out, secured a tie.

“I was born in Peshawar,” Tayyab said in his passable English, which goes with his Pushto, Urdu and Punjabi, “but my parents and their parents from long back came from Mohmand Agency in Afghanistan.” If you take the road to Landi Kotal, or even the old train to the Pakistan border, Mohmand Agency is the land which sweeps below you; and such is its situation, Tayyab has never been able to visit his ancestral home.

“I was a leg-spinner till I was 13, then my coach Babu Irfan at the Peshawar Academy saw me bowling left-arm one day, and he told me to bowl 10 overs every day with a tennis ball with one arm then 10 overs with the other arm.” Which Tayyab says he duly did. He also gave up his leg-spin in favour of off-spin, but perhaps he could revive it, and thereby bowl all forms of spin.

Tayyab said he does everything else right-handed, and knows of nobody left-handed in his family who are all in Peshawar. Snell said: “T is more accurate as a left-arm spinner but Tom Smith thinks the shape in his off-break is better and he gets more drop on the ball.” There does not seem to be much in it, whereas other spinners who have tried to bowl with both hands, like the Sri Lankan Kamindu Mendis, have been manifestly stronger and better with one particular arm.

A feature of Tayyab’s bowling is how he drives through the crease. He lives in Cardiff and, when not studying IT at Cardiff and Wales College, earns a living through a different kind of delivery, for Uber Eats. But as electric cycles are not allowed in the Welsh capital he uses an ordinary push-bike: good for thighs.

Tayyab qualifies for a UK passport in 2027, when he will be 23. Meanwhile he has leave to remain status. As for his future on the field, Snell said: “His awareness is growing. Charging at the ball in the field with one hand is great if there is a run-out on, but a big no-no when the batsmen are not trying to run. I’m looking at him as a long-term project and think he is going to have a great future as a 20-over franchise bowler.”

Given that England’s resources in spin bowling are thinner than they have ever been, and far thinner than in any other department of their cricket, Tayyab’s bowling may have wider application.