Fawad Ahmed dreaming of Ashes visit to Lords’ ... but only for a working holiday

AUSTRALIAN spin bowler Fawad Ahmed wants to visit Lords’ very soon — but only in the baggy green and not just as a sightseer.

Photo: Hamish Blair Fawad Ahmed bowls in the nets at Junction Oval on Tuesday, December 17, 2013 in Melbourne, Australia.

FAWAD Ahmed has declined several invitations from a London-based friend to visit the home of cricket, Lord’s, for the first time.

“I say I do not want to see it until I am going to play there,” he says. “Hopefully that is now going to happen.”

Depending on how he fares on the two-Test tour of the West Indies beginning when the team flies out on Sunday, he may be in contention for the second Ashes Test at the hallowed venue from July 16-20.

“I have been thinking about it — the Queen could be there, the rooms are different, even the lunch is different,” he says, barely able to conceal his excitement at the prospect.

He is working hard to make it happen.

He refused his mother’s plea to spend more time with her at their recent reunion in Dubai because he needed to get home to train.

On the Saturday morning the Herald Sun visited him at home, he finished the interview, walked to a nearby park to pray with other like-minded people — he has a phone app to tell him the direction of Mecca — and then drove to the MCG to practise alone in the indoor nets with tens of thousands of AFL fans oblivious to his presence.

After a stellar 48-wicket season for Victoria, he is “pretty hopeful,” he says.

“I am in good form and mentally satisfied this time.”

In 2013, when he was made his international debut in short-form cricket in England, he says he was distracted by the political turmoil surrounding his citizenship application and the general rush with which his world was changing.

“I couldn’t concentrate on cricket,” he says. “I feel so lucky and so thankful to God that he has given me another chance.

“I have performed really well at Shield level, although the previous season my average and strike-rate were both better. But sometimes you need a big haul like the eight-for (in the Shield final against Western Australia) or a couple of fives (during the previous two matches) to make the media and selectors take notice.

“The good thing is all my wickets came in the slips or bowled or lbw, which shows I have control and confidence.

“Hopefully I can take it to the next level, but it will be a tough job with different conditions, different balls.”