When Fawad Alam reached his century by pulling a bouncer from Kyle Mayers towards the square leg boundary, it was his fifth Test century in Test cricket and fourth in a span of just 10 months. Crediting his mother for her blessing, Fawad said it was because of his parents that he has been able to fight it out and never give up on the dream to play for Pakistan again.
“First of all, I would like to inform all that my mom called before the start of the first day of this second Test. It was eight am here and six pm back home, and she just said in Urdu, ‘Jao aaj tum century banaoge’, today you will score a century,” Fawad said in a video uploaded by the Pakistan Cricket Board on their official Twitter handle. “So I don’t know what got into her, but I guess it’s all because of her blessings,” he added.
But it wasn’t only his mother said the 35-year-old as he went on to describe a chant he had with his father on the same day. “I also talked to my father on the and he said, ‘West Indies me bhi ek dafa balla lehrao yaar’ ‘make a century in the West Indies too man’. So you know, these feelings that you get from your loved ones, these are very strong feelings,” he said.
Fawad, who is now the 23rd Pakistan player to make five-Test centuries and the fastest among them all to do so, said, “When you have the blessings of your parents, especially your mother, you sail through all obstacles no matter what.”
The southpaw after playing his first three Tests way back in 2009, didn’t get a chance to feature in another Test for Pakistan until 2020. Talking about his motivation during such times, Fawad said, “My father had been cricketer during his time and knew about the ups and downs of a sportsperson’s career. So he helped me in having a levelled head.”
“There are others too who kept on encouraging me. They never said that your tome is up, they kept on saying, keep playing your time will come, and Inshallah it has worked,” Fawad continued.
Talking about his unique celebration style which is inspired by the Turkish show Ertuğrul Gazi, Fawad said, “When I and Azhar Ali were playing a four-day match in New Zealand, then we decided on our celebrations that we would do if we scored a century in the New Zealand series. Luckily I did and hence the celebration has carried on from there. It is the victory sign of Gazi as you know.”