England National Cricket Team captain Harry Brook was surprised after knowing about Pakistan’s young all-rounder Arafat Minhas who had a brilliant performance in the second match of the Tri-Nation ODI series against England in Rawalpindi on October 20.

The 21-year-old justified his place with both bat and ball, hitting 59 off 58 balls and taking 6 for 40 to play a vital role in Pakistan’s impressive 87-run victory over England. Amid this, Pakistan players want Category C deals as PCB set to revamp Central Contracts.

Arafat Minhas destroys England with bat and ball

When Pakistan needed someone to rise to the occasion, Arafat Minhas proved his mettle. He scored valuable runs before destroying England's batting line-up with his left-arm spin. His outstanding performance helped Pakistan secure a dominating win over England in Rawalpindi.

The Men in Green were struggling at 133 for five when Minhas came to the crease. But the youngster hit a brilliant knock of 59 runs off 58 balls and helped Pakistan to a strong total of 302/9. He then produced a career-best bowling performance, taking six wickets for just 40 runs.

England started their chase well, with Tom Banton and Ben Duckett adding 91 runs for the opening wicket. Banton scored 57 before getting out, but England soon lost control of the match. Minhas dismissed Brook with a delivery that turned sharply past his bat and hit the stumps.

The young all-rounder continued his wicket-taking spree by scalping four more wickets before finishing the match with a direct-hit run-out. England were bowled out for 215, suffering an 87-run defeat. Minhas was adjudged Player of the Match for his all-rounder performance against England.

Harry Brook impressed by Arafat Minhas

Harry Brook hailed Arafat Minhas for his excellent bowling and also lauded Pakistan's outstanding fielding. The England captain admitted that his team had not faced the youngster often, but his performance made him the standout player of the Tri-Nation ODI match on Tuesday.

Brook said at the post-match presentation: “He’s a nice bowler; he bowled very well. I thought they fielded exceptionally well. We’ve all seen videos of him, but obviously we haven’t played against him much—but he was the standout performer by a mile.”

England captain Harry Brook gets surprised to know the age of the youngster Arafat Minhas. VC: PCB #PAKvENG | #Cricket | #Pakistan | #HarryBrook | #ArafatMinhas https://t.co/CmYcI6rdhk

— Khel Shel (@khelshel) October 20, 2026

Minhas also achieved a special milestone with his performance. The 21-year-old became only the third Pakistani all-rounder, after Abdul Razzaq and Shahid Afridi, to score a half-century and take five or more wickets in an ODI. Amid this, Harbhajan Singh opens up on speculated rift with MS Dhoni.

Harry Brook explains why England lost to Pakistan despite strong start

On being asked whether he was surprised by Pakistan’s performance, the England captain replied by saying, "No. Why would I be surprised? They're an international side, and they're still a very strong team. They're one of the top five ODI sides in the world. They've got some exceptional performers on their side. Arafat had an amazing game today.”

Brook also felt England failed to maintain the required pressure after Banton and Duckett gave them a good start. Despite receiving guidance on playing spin from former England batter Kevin Pietersen, who recently took up a specialist mentoring role, England could not build on their strong start.

He signed off by saying, “At the halfway stage, we were pretty happy. I thought we kept them to just below par, and we executed our plans exceptionally well, and unfortunately, we didn’t manage to get it quite right with the bat. The story of the innings was not enough partnerships and losing wickets in clumps. We didn’t manage to put their bowlers under enough pressure to make them miss, and that’s something we’ll talk about.”