Former Pakistani refugee Fawad Ahmed had made a breakthrough performance with his first full international wickets at Chester-le-Street, although it failed to prevent his adopted homeland Australia suffering a 29-run loss to England in the second Twenty20 international on Saturday.
According to News.com.au, Ahmed finished with 3-25 at Chester-le-Street in only his second appearance for Australia, justifying Australia's faith in him after their successful efforts to make him an Australian citizen.
The report further said that the leg-spinner's performance helped keep England to 5-195 from 20 overs, although Australia could only manage 9-168 in response.
According to the report, Ahmed, who fled to Australia from Pakistan in 2010 as an asylum seeker, came a long way made a wicket-less debut in Australia's 39-run win in the opening T20 in Southampton on Thursday, and showed that he deserves a call-up for the return Ashes series.
The report further said that England's win was set up by opener Alex Hales' impressive 94 from 61 balls while David Warner led the chase for Australia with 53 off 42, which ensured that two-match T20 series was drawn ahead of the five-match one-day battle starting next week.
Australia will head to Edinburgh for a one-off 50-over match against Scotland on Tuesday before returning for the start of the ODI series against England in Leeds on Friday, the report added.
