News of Jammu & Kashmir’s first Ranji Trophy title travelled quickly this weekend, but nowhere did it hit harder than in Bijbehara. Parvez Rasool, former captain and still the region’s most recognisable cricketer, had left home early on Saturday, worried the match in Hubballi might finish before he reached Srinagar. He arrived in time and, when the final wicket fell, sent the message he had rehearsed for days:
“Auqib, hum tumhare karzdaar hain.”
Those eight Hindi words – “Auqib, we’re indebted to you” – summed up a campaign that belonged, in large part, to 26-year-old seamer Auqib Nabi. Sixty wickets across the season, twenty-six of them in the knock-outs, ensured J&K’s first-ever appearance in a Ranji final ended in a nine-wicket win.
Key facts first
• Nabi finished with 60 wickets, the most by a J&K bowler in a single first-class season.
• J&K had never gone beyond the quarter-finals until this year.
• The final, played on a slow Hubballi pitch, lasted just over four days.
Rasool says he has never seen anything unite Kashmir’s scattered cricket community quite like Nabi’s run. “When have we heard one player from J&K get so much attention? It’s better late than never. Auqib has made us proud, and made his family proud. He and the entire team have given our state a new sporting identity.”
Rasool, now coaching with the J&K Sports Council and running the South Kashmir Cricket Academy he built with IPL earnings, notices the shift daily. “Over the past two weeks alone, kids have come up to me saying they want to bowl like Nabi,” he laughs, equal parts mentor and proud elder brother.
Pathan’s out-of-box plan
Irfan Pathan watched most of the final on a laptop in the commentary booth at the T20 World Cup. Five years ago, the all-rounder had been hired as mentor by the state association. With no red-soil strips at home – crucial for honing seam skills – he shifted pre-season training to Baroda’s Moti Baug. Nabi and Abdul Samad made their first-class debuts that winter.
“It’s been five years since I left J&K cricket, but the win feels so personal,” Pathan says. “I remember when I first went there, Rasikh Dar came to our first trial along with six of his cousins and said, ‘they all want to play just like me’. And he’d just come off a maiden IPL stint with Mumbai Indians.
“If that was the effect one person playing in the IPL had, imagine the effect J&K winning the Ranji Trophy would? This will give them an identity. I haven’t seen the entire Indian cricket ecosystem unite in support for one team, like they have for J&K. The team deserves every bit of this.”
Pathan is careful not to claim credit – administrators have changed twice since his stint – but those red-soil sessions, allies say, seeded Nabi’s ability to hit the fuller length that prospered in Hubballi last week.
A family’s long wait
Back in Jammu, Farooq Mohammed, a PE instructor in a government school, could only shake his head. “Main lafzon mein bayaan nahi kar sakta,” he says, voice cracking. He remembers sneaking into the university ground in 1983 when Sir Vivian Richards’ West Indians played an exhibition game. “My dream of playing cricket started that day,” he adds. Life intervened; his younger son now returns home with a Ranji medal instead. “We’re preparing for a grand celebration,” he says. “Samad has changed his style. Earlier, he used to—” He trails off, emotion taking over.
From euphoria to ‘what next?’
The achievement invites the obvious question: what changes now? Former J&K all-rounder Samiullah Beigh, working these days as an engineer with the state’s public works department, keeps expectations measured. “Infrastructure is still thin. One good season won’t fix pitches frozen four months a year,” he points out, tapping the desk for emphasis. But he also sees a window: sponsorship conversations that once fizzled out after a polite ‘we’ll get back’ already feel warmer.
Coach Ajay Sharma, who took charge last August, agrees but rattles off priorities before celebration: an indoor facility in Srinagar to combat harsh winters, consistent age-group pathways and, crucially, more four-day cricket outside the Ranji window. “Young seamers need overs, not just nets,” he says. Simple, but rarely easy.
How Nabi did it
For numbers-minded followers, Nabi’s 60 wickets came at 14.81 runs each and just under four an over – impressive considering he operates without express pace. He hits the seam from a relaxed, almost languid run-up, and keeps the stumps in play. “All those hours on Baroda’s hard decks forced him to bowl straighter,” Sharma notes. In cricket speak, he bowled wobble seam with enough drift to make right-handers play, but you did not need a biomechanics degree to spot the real asset: stamina. He sent down 283.4 overs in the season, second only to Vidarbha’s Aditya Thakare.
Yet ask Nabi himself and he shrugs. “Arrey bhai, wicket lene ka mazaa aata hai,” he said on the livestream, half-embarrassed, half-ecstatic: ‘Mate, taking wickets is fun.’ He thanked Rasool for early backing, Pathan for the Baroda camp and, in a quiet nod, Pakistan great Wasim Akram, whose clips he re-watched on a cracked phone screen.
Room for flaws
J&K, for all the gloss, still bat thin. They lost five for 45 on the third afternoon and would have been under real pressure had Nabi not prised out Vidarbha’s top three inside 40 minutes. That wobble offers coaching staff a clear winter brief: add depth and patience to the middle order. Another technical gap is slip catching; four spilled chances were erased only because Nabi kept finding the edge again.
Why this matters
Ranji titles do not guarantee Test caps, but they buy time, funds and, most importantly, belief. Kids in downtown Srinagar now have a modern hero whose story begins on the same streets. For a region where, not long ago, a single IPL contract felt monumental, a championship side feels faintly surreal.
Rasool circles back to that sentiment. “Auqib has made us proud… given our state a new sporting identity.” Spoken softly, but you suspect those words will echo around the Valley all winter.
