‘He possesses the skills we need’ - Derbyshire Head of Cricket Mickey Arthur lauds Zaman Khan for performance in T20 Blast

Even though Derbyshire lost their opening game against Lancashire Lightning in the ongoing T20 blast, the Head of Cricket at the Derbyshire Cricket Club and also Pakistan cricket team's Director Mickey Arthur was heavily impressed with Zaman Khan’s bowling, who picked up two wickets in the match. Notably, the cricketer was roped in by Derbyshire on the recommendation of Arthur to strengthen their pace department for the tournament.

The 21-year-old joined the Derbyshire squad on Thursday, May 18 and had just one practice session before he featured for the Falcons. In the match against Lancashire Lightnings, the pacer conceded a lot of runs in the first two overs but made a brilliant comeback towards the fag end. Talking about his performance, Mickey Arthur stated that Zaman has the qualities that the team needs in the competition.

“He will just get better and better. He possesses the skills we need. He balls an incredibly-good fast yorker; he delivers a good bouncer and a very good slower ball, and those are the skills we need,” Arthur was quoted as saying by The International News.

“The key is he fits into what we needed. We needed somebody who can bowl two overs in the power play and then two at depth. Something when we had looked at our squad, we thought we had left, and he can do that and does that incredibly well. We battle a little bit with his English, but actually, we are very fortunate to get him,” Arthur added.

His success and ability to bowl in the death overs in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) earned him a call to the national team earlier in the year. He made his debut for Pakistan during the three-match T20I series against Afghanistan in March this year.

“He will get just better and better, as this is his first time in England and in these conditions. We need to just get another week into him and he’ll be good to go on Friday night,” Arthur added.