Inspired by Dhoni, tempered by struggle: The rise of Pakistan’s sling-arm surprise, Usman Tariq

While Usman’s action — where he pauses at the crease for a moment before releasing the ball in a sling-arm action with a lower trajectory, similar to the one Lasith Malinga used to employ — has been hogging the limelight, his journey from Peshawar to the Pakistan team via Kabul, Dubai, the USA and Karachi has been nothing short of extraordinary.

Nabeel Hashmi, the GM of Quetta Gladiators, who spotted Usman soon after he landed in Karachi after returning from Dubai, says he always stood out. “I saw him at a Ramadan tournament, where you play with a hard ball. He was different from everyone and his action was unique. Batsmen were not able to set themselves up against that action because it was challenging to hit him. I didn’t take him immediately, but he remained a player of interest,” Hashmi tells The Indian Express.

With cricket in the USA making the right noises, Usman headed there to play in Minor League Cricket, where he played a prominent role. “When you get to the USA, you feel you are sorted. You can live a good life and even settle there. But when I called him to play the Sindh Premier League in Karachi, he had the vision to see what that tournament could do for him. Since all the PSL scouts were there, he knew it could be a life-changer. Despite a lot riding on his performances, he didn’t flinch — he took 13 wickets in four matches. Eventually, when Quetta needed a replacement player in 2024, we brought him into the PSL fold,” Hashmi says.

From then on, Usman has hardly looked back. At the Abu Dhabi T10, he challenged himself against some of the toughest batsmen — Jos Buttler and Nicholas Pooran — in the shortest format and came up trumps. Those performances meant he became a T20 globetrotter, featuring in the ILT20 and the Caribbean Premier League, where he ended up as the second-highest wicket-taker. In between all of this, he was reported twice for an illegal action before being cleared to bowl. The bent elbow, Usman claims, is an illusion, as he has double-jointed elbows that do not allow him to straighten his arms fully.

The Cameron Green controversy

Last week, during a T20I between Pakistan and Australia in Lahore, Australia all-rounder Cameron Green made gestures hinting that Usman was throwing the ball after being dismissed. Usman responded by posting a video of a child crying on Instagram with the caption: “After getting out.” That Usman saw the funny side of it does not come as a surprise to his cousin, Haseeb Ur Rahman.

If there is one person who has had a ringside view of Usman’s career, it is Haseeb — first in Kabul and then in Dubai. “Since he lost his father very early, he rarely had good days. In 2010, when I was in Kabul working for an NGO, Usman joined me there looking for ways to make a living. But you know how it is in Kabul, and he struggled a lot during those days just to get an opportunity to earn,” Haseeb says.

Cameron Green did not look happy after he was dismissed by Usman Tariq in the 2nd T20I vs Pakistan, making a chucking gesture with his hands as he walked out of the field (Screengrabs: X)

At the peak of winter in Afghanistan, with temperatures hitting 0 degrees Celsius, Usman struggled for days, unable to withstand the severe cold. “Even though he was struggling, he wasn’t willing to go home because he wanted to help his family in whatever way he could. After he was denied a job at the NGO I worked for, I told our bosses that I would give up part of my salary and they could give that to him because it was hard for me to see him in that situation. It wasn’t big money, but I knew it would at least let him sleep peacefully,” Haseeb says.

The harsh conditions eventually drove Usman back to Karachi, where the spinner completed his graduation in B.Com while continuing to play club-level cricket. The cousins’ paths crossed again a few years later in Dubai. “When he called me, I had just one thing on my mind. Before coming to Kabul, he had worked in Dubai at a restaurant. His job was to peel onions all day while standing, and it had created back issues. So when he came to Dubai for the second time, he got an opportunity at an automobile factory,” Haseeb says.

Having found a reliable job, Usman went back to attending trials in Dubai. His first stop was Peshawar Zalmi, which overlooked him. The 9-to-5 job, although monotonous, was hard for Usman to let go of — until he tuned in to watch MS Dhoni: The Untold Story.