BBL 2021-22: Sydney Thunder rope in rising England pacer Saqib Mahmood

The Big Bash League franchise Sydney Thunder has announced the signing of England pacer Saqib Mahmood for the upcoming edition of the tournament. Mahmood exuded his flair in the white ball series against Pakistan wherein he turned many heads with his spells. He was one of the architects of England’s victory in the ODI series wherein he scalped nine wickets in just three matches at an average of 13.

Mahmood will be joining fellow Englishmen Alex Hales and Sam Billings in the Sydney Thunder. Sam Billings was his skipper at the Oval Invincibles in The Hundred tournament. The England pacer thus expressed his feelings on being a part of the BBL. He shed light on the high competitiveness of the Australian T20 competition and stated that he would strive to win matches for the side.

“You see full houses; you see close games; the standard of cricket is high, and you get some really good overseas players. It’s a high-class tournament. The main thing for me is to try and help Sydney Thunder win the Big Bash. I’ve had a look at the squad, it’s a really good side, and there’s a lot of class: a lot of match-winners,” Mahmood asserted as reported by Cricwick.

My approach to bowling is always taking the positive option: Saqib Mahmood

Saqib Mahmood has been one of the emerging pacers and a promising talent of England. He possesses the ability to hit the speed of 145kph consistently and is essentially roped in by the Thunder as a replacement of Adam Milne as the New Zealander is not expected to return to the BBL 11. Mahmood who was named as the player of the series against Pakistan opened up about his bowling approach.

“My approach to bowling is always taking the positive option; the brave option. It’s obviously aligned to confidence because when your confidence is up, you’re more likely to take those options. But for me, it’s always about trying to take that positive aggressive option to take wickets. I just try to be smart and bowl what the game requires at the time. It’s also always about giving 100 percent all the time and trying to let it go as fast as quickly as I can,” Mahmood added.