TALENTED cricketer Hashim Akhtar is already practising his fielding skills from his hospital bed just two months after suffering a brain haemorrhage.

The 18-year-old is improving every day after coming out of an induced coma about three weeks ago.

And he can be found playing catch with his younger brother as he recovers in Salford Royal Hospital.

Mum, Mrs Akhtar said: "Hashim is improving every day.

"He is talking and eating, and has started taking steps, and he can go outside.

"Abdullah has been bringing a ball when he visits which he throws to Hashim to catch. He has really been encouraging him.

"Hashim has asked him to bring a bat with him next time so they can play cricket outside!"

Hashim, was playing in a Twenty-20 match for Astley Bridge Cricket Club when he collapsed in the toilets of the Sharples Park Ground on May 28.

A doctor who is the father of one of the Bradshaw players attended to Hashim until the paramedics arrived.

The A-level student at Bolton Sixth Form College was taken to Royal Bolton Hospital for emergency care, before being transferred to Salford Royal Hospital where he underwent an operation to remove a blood clot in his brain.

He started coming out of the coma about three weeks ago.

Mrs Akthar has been keeping a bedside vigil, with his father, a cricket pro, visiting in the morning and evening while family members have been trying to keep life as normal for his siblings – Harris, aged 14, Hamna, aged 11 and Abdullah aged nine.

Mrs Akthar, who lives with her family in Rankine Terrace in Deane, said: "When he was in ICU I stayed with him, just going home sometimes.

"The children were so upset, he is their big brother.

"The first three weeks were hard. When he came out of ICU, I started feeling better.

"It was important to try and keep things as normal as them for possible and my sister and family really helped so I could be here."

She added: "He spoke for the first time three weeks ago when he was Face Timing his uncle.

"He remembers playing cricket and that he fainted.

"He sometimes forgets things but that is normal at this stage.

"He is making a massive improvement. At first he had no movement in his left side."

Hashim is now in a rehabilitation ward where he is building his strength up.

She said: “We took him to ICU to see if he remembered anything there, and a nurse came up to him and hugged him, she was so pleased to see him.”

Since being admitted into hospital, Hashim has had messages of support from the cricket community in Bolton and from across the world.

Mrs Akthar said: “Myself and my husband want to thank everyone for all their support and all the prayers for Hashim and they continue to pray for him to make a full recovery.

“We have had so many messages of support, which have really helped.

She said: "The doctors and medical teams have been great.

"My husband met the doctor who looked after Hashim when he collapsed.

"We are so grateful to him and all the medical teams.

"They have been looking after him like he was their own child."

Hashim has played cricket since he was 13, has represented Bolton and was due to be watched by scouts from Lancashire on the weekend he fell ill.

His father, Fawad, was a cricket pro for Bolton, Darcy Lever and Bolton Indians and brother Haaris, is a promising cricketer.

Hashim said: “I am doing really well and looking forward to seeing my cricket friends.

“The support I have had has been great and everybody has been really nice."