The J&K fast bowler has been on an upward trend since the last season’s Ranji Trophy
Ashish Pant29-Aug-2025All the attention on the second day of the 2025-26 Duleep Trophy game between North Zone and East Zone was on Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana, who are playing their last competitive match before heading off to the Asia Cup. But it was Jammu and Kashmir fast bowler Auqib Nabi, who made everyone sit up and take note by bagging a five-wicket haul, which included four wickets in four balls.”I had not seen Nabi bowl earlier,” Arshdeep said after the second day’s play in Bengaluru. “The first time I saw him was at the [North Zone] nets, and I think in his first ten balls, he must have taken some seven wickets. That’s when I realised, this lad is special. The ball comes out of his hand really nicely. The work he has put in in domestic cricket, everyone has seen it today. I think he will take a lot of wickets in the future as well.”The third session of the quarter-final between East Zone and North Zone was moving at a sedate pace. East Zone wicketkeeper-batter Kumar Kushagra had just been dismissed, but Virat Singh was looking fairly unhurried on 69, and having seen off long spells from Arshdeep and Harshit, would have harboured hopes of going to stumps unscathed.Related
Auqib Nabi, Prithvi Shaw and others who have lit up the Ranji Trophy
Padikkal, Jagadeesan key as depleted South Zone face formidable North
Abdul Samad expects new approach to take him where he hasn't gone before
Ankit, Rasheed added to South Zone squad for Duleep semi-final
Arshdeep fine-tunes red-ball skills by learning to enjoy the 'boring times'
All that changed around 4.15pm when, in the 53rd over of the innings, Nabi decided to show why he finished the 2024-25 Ranji trophy season as the highest wicket-taker among fast bowlers.He first flattened Virat’s middle stump with a pacy length ball. The next delivery, he got one to skid through low and trapped Manishi, who shouldered arms, lbw. Mukhtar Hussain faced the hat-trick ball and got nowhere close to the sharp inducker that rattled his off and middle stumps. Hat-trick.That signalled the end of Nabi’s eighth over, but he was not yet done. On the first ball of his next over, he had Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal caught behind to become just the fifth Indian bowler to claim four wickets in four balls in first-class cricket. Not long after, Nabi trapped Mohammed Shami in front to claim his ninth five-wicket haul in just his 30th match.Nabi had figures of 0 for 23 in seven overs in his first spell; in his second, he returned 5 for 5 in 3.1 overs. East Zone, who were on 222 for 5 midway through the 53rd over, lost 5 for 8 in 22 balls to be bowled out for 230. Nabi’s spell helped North Zone take a 175-run first-innings lead and a firm grip on proceedings.”When we went into the tea break, the coaches told us that it’s all gone a bit flat, so they asked us to show some enthusiasm, and that’s what we did”, Nabi told ESPNcricinfo. “I am feeling very good. This is a rare record, four in four, but more importantly, I got my team a first-innings lead.”When I started my spell, I was bowling well. I beat the bat a number of times, and I felt I was a bit unlucky. I try and pick up wickets; if that doesn’t work, I try and contain the batters. Today, I just tried to put the ball in one place, and it worked. There was a nice breeze blowing across the ground in the evening and I got help from that.”The second day was not just about Nabi the fast bowler. In the morning session, he also smashed 44 in 33 balls, including four fours and two sixes, taking North Zone to safer shores after they had slipped to 308 for 7. He added 66 runs for the eighth wicket with Kanhaiya Wadhawan, with North Zone finishing on 405.Auqib Nabi picked up four wickets in four balls•PTI “When you bat well, it helps build your confidence and carries it forward,” Nabi said. “It shows in your bowling and fielding. It [my innings] was crucial for the team. I work a lot on my batting. I practice a lot.”It’s been a sensational year-and-a-half for Nabi. Before the start of the 2024-25 Ranji season, he had 46 wickets in 20 matches. By the end of the season, he had almost doubled his tally. He picked up 44 wickets in eight matches – the second-most in the season – striking at 30.47, which included six five-fors. Nabi’s sensational form coincided with J&K qualifying for the Ranji knockouts for the first time in five years. While they narrowly missed out on a semi-final berth, the 28-year-old earned his maiden Duleep Trophy call-up.J&K recorded eight wins in last year’s Ranji season. One of those wins came against Mumbai, which had several international players in the XI, including former Test captain Rohit Sharma. Nabi took six wickets in that game, dismissing the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube and Shardul Thakur. It was a performance that gave Nabi plenty of confidence.”As a bowler, as a cricketer, that was a very important match for us,” he said. “Almost half of the Indian side was playing. The motivation is different when you bowl to good players. And we also had great preparation. Our board got us to Mumbai a week before the match to acclimatise to the conditions and that helped.”Nabi hails from Baramulla in Kashmir. His father is a teacher in a government school and one of his biggest supporters. But the cricket facilities in Baramulla are almost non-existent. The closest ground from his home is in Srinagar, over 50 kilometres away. Did that deter him at any point growing up? ” goal India matter nahi karta. [If your goal is to play for India, these things don’t matter],” he says. “It doesn’t matter if you have limited resources. You have to use them. You can’t make excuses. You have to keep improving if you want to play for your country. And that’s my goal… to wear the India whites.”
