Auqib Nabi: Kashmiri Prodigy

AUQIB NABI’S SINGLE-season journey from a largely unknown cricketer outside of Jammu & Kashmir to the toast of the Indian cricketing fraternity, after having led his state to their maiden Ranji Trophy with the ball, is the kind of feat that makes followers of the sport believe in fairytales. But make no mistake, the 29-year-old fast bowler’s wider arc of be­coming a professional cricketer of repute from the Val­ley is no miracle. For, Nabi’s phenomenal rise is steeped in hard work, single-minded dedication to his passion despite his father, a middle-school teacher in Baramulla, being dead-set against his choice and a whole lot of be­lief, given that J&K had no real cricket-infrastructure to speak of when Nabi took up the sport over a decade ago.

Nabi managed to raise some eyebrows with 44 wick­ets in the previous first-class season (2024-25), but has all but kicked the door to the Indian team down with 60 wickets in 2025-26—the most by any bowler in this Ranji Trophy edition. He picked them in great bunches, with eight five-wicket hauls studding his tally, includ­ing one in the final in Hubballi, the backyard of the favourites, Karnataka. Far from being intimidated, Nabi ended up counting among his scalps the wickets of KL Rahul, centurion Mayank Agarwal and Karun Nair for nought—all three of whom have or continue to represent India in Test cricket, the ultimate stage and format in the sport that Nabi now seems destined for.