"His ability, nous and experience have made him a threatening proposition in English conditions, and whilst it's impossible for him to link up with us this year, we're certainly not closing the door on welcoming him to Trent Bridge in the future."
So said Mick Newell in the summer of 2020, after Mohammad Abbas' planned stint with Nottinghamshire was stymied by the onset of Covid-19 pandemic.
Five years on, Abbas is finally set to don Notts whites in a six-game stay this summer.
And if anything, he has only become a more formidable proposition in the red-ball game over the past half-decade.
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A fine First-Class record
When he first put pen to paper at Trent Bridge in the winter of 2019, Abbas boasted 447 First-Class wickets at 20.89.
Today, his record stands at 758 scalps, at a scarcely-believable career average of 20.66.
That includes 180 wickets taken in a productive spell with Hampshire, when Abbas vied with the likes of Nottinghamshire's Brett Hutton, Dane Paterson and Luke Fletcher for a spot at the top of the County Championship wicket-taking charts.
Notts supporters - and indeed players - will need no reminding of his prowess; he's taken 22 wickets at 16.09 in four outings against the Green and Golds, including a six-wicket haul in the 2023 season-opener in which he was simply irresistible.
His potency is allied to a miserliness that makes him an ideal seamer for English conditions, with a career economy rate a shade over 2.5.
But his attributes make him a danger in all conditions - six First-Class matches in Pakistan this winter yielded 35 wickets at 13.77.
International honours
At the time of his original signing, Abbas had amassed 66 Test wickets - and his performances in the summer of 2020 showed a bowler at home on the global stage.
One particular scalp - that of Ben Stokes in the first Test at Old Trafford - was hailed by Cricinfo as one of the balls of the 21st Century.
Drifting in, seaming away, narrowly missing the outside edge only to clip off-stump - it led Stokes to rehearse his ostensibly-faultless defensive shot in astonishment as he walked off, and rendered commentator Nasser Hussain almost speechless.
A preference for pure pace meant Abbas was absent from the international stage between August 2021 and December 2024.
In between those Test caps, he took 223 wickets at 20.24 - and ultimately, his credentials were simply unignorable.
This winter, he returned to the international fold with two fruitful appearances - with figures of 6/54 in his comeback Test against South Africa including five of the hosts' top six.
His most recent Test wicket in the second Test at Cape Town was a much delayed, but richly deserved, 100th in the sport's most prestigious format.
Career Test figures of 100 wickets at 23.18 indicate a man who understands his strengths and possesses the discipline to thrive when playing the long game.
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