After twin sister, Ibrahim Faisal shines in U19 World Cup

“I used to try and avoid going to cricket training (laughs), but my mom never let me quit,” the 19-year-old admits. But it was her brother who helped her in the early days to get her cricket basics right. “He tried to be patient at first. I would say I’m quite stubborn and he has got a very low patience tolerance with me. (laughs) So it would be like him giving me throwdowns or teaching me a shot when we were younger, especially because I picked up cricket a lot later and he had learned everything properly before I had. One of the things was how to play a cover drive because I used to not move my feet at all. It was quite brutal. He would be mad by the end of the session,” she says.

Despite being harsh on his sister at times,  Ibrahim knew when to calm her nerves and support her; even when he was playing for the opposition teams. Maryam remembers the incident fondly when her brother gave her confidence in the middle of the junior club cricket final. “I think one of the best memories I ever had was in 2019. It was a club junior final. It was Clydesdale ones versus Clydesdale two. Both of us were playing for different teams. When I was walking onto the pitch to bat, the other team had thought that, ‘oh, we’ve got it in the bag’ and they going to win easily. Bhaiyya just came up to me and said, ‘Maryam, they don’t think you can do it. show them that you can.’ Then it just clicked and I batted well that day. By just being there and watching me he was very happy,” an emotional Maryam said.