Victorian off-spinner Fawad Ahmed admits talk of Ashes debut affected his bowling Fawad Ahmed is still Victoria's leading wicket taker this season. Fawad Ahmed admits he allowed talk that he was in Ashes contention to affect his bowling, and lost his way, but the leg spinner says he is prepared to be patient in pursuit of his Test dream. Ahmed was briefly in the frame to play the first Test at the Gabba and took a bag of wickets for Victoria in the first Sheffield Shield game of the season. But he faded with one wicket in an expensive performance against a full-strength NSW in the next game. Though he has since regained his rhythm, he was dropped for Victoria's most recent match in Brisbane, where the Bushrangers did not play a specialist spinner and slumped to their third consecutive outright loss. He is still Victoria's leading wicket taker this season. Ahmed was dealt another blow on Friday when he was left out of the Melbourne Renegades team for the opening Big Bash game at the MCG against the Melbourne Stars, despite being the Australian team's most recent Twenty20 spinner. The Renegades are flush with spinners, led by Sri Lankan hero Muthiah Muralidaran. Aaron O'Brien, the former South Australian left-armer, was chosen ahead of Ahmed. Later in the season he will also have to compete with Pakistan off-spinner Mohammad Hafeez. Ahmed said he allowed the Ashes speculation to get to him but had not lost heart. "In the last three [shield] games I bowled really well because there was not much tension about the Ashes," said Ahmed, who has settled after a turbulent 12 months during which he was accepted as a refugee from Pakistan, became an Australian citizen, and made his international debut in the limited-overs series in England. It wasn't bowling to [David] Warner or Michael Clarke [in the NSW game], that's not the pressure game, the pressure was to play for the Ashes or not, that was the main thing. That was quite big for me, when you're in contention and people are talking, selectors and media, about who is going to play. I felt the pressure to perform well. I performed well in the first game and let myself down in the second because there was a lot of pressure to take wickets. That was the moment I lost my way. Unfortunately I didn't make it but there's still plenty of cricket coming up, so it's not the end of the world. Performances in the BBL will count towards selection for the T20 and ODI series against England, with IPL talent scouts also watching. "Plenty of things depend on this Big Bash, so I would love to play more games and play for Australia again," said Ahmed, who is to determined to soak up Muralidaran's experience. He's a completely different bowler, even for an off spinner he is quite different. He has been playing for more than 20 years, so I'm learning and taking a lot of positives from his experience.