Shahbaz Ahmed's journey: From most backward district to Team India

cricket commentary of Jasdev Singh and Sushil Doshi on radio that his grandfather was hooked to. Mohammad Ishaq, 73, cannot believe that one day the commentary could be about his grandson. “That’ll be my happiest day, when he plays for the country,” he says. That day may not be far off. Shahbaz, 27, is part of Team India’s ODI squad in Zimbabwe as replacement for the injury-racked Washington Sundar. A slow left-arm spinner and effective lower middle-order southpaw, Shahbaz plies his trade for Bengal and RCB. But he comes from the Muslim-majority Nuh in Haryana’s Mewat, named as India’s most backward district by Niti Aayog. Shahbaz’s selection has prompted collective joy in a region where sporting models are rare. “There is no dearth of talent in Mewat. They need to be found and given a platform. Illiteracy and joblessness are our two main miseries,” says Ramzan Chaudhary, a social activist and chief of the All India Mewati Samaj. Shahbaz, who has been included in Team India’s ODI squad in Zimbabwe as replacement for Washington Sundar, has impressed everyone with his allround skills and temperament since making his first-class debut in 2018.

He scored 116 and scalped eight wickets in a valiant but futile bid to win the game for his adopted state, Bengal, against Madhya Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy semifinal this year. As a kid, Shahbaz discovered his obsession for cricket in the two-player matches he played with his father. The boy would bat, his father bowled. “He has been playing cricket since he was four. I had to bowl to him for hours together. “Eventually, I would get tired, but not him! Just to end the game, I’d bowl a loose ball, which he would hit for a ‘six’. The match had to end because the ball would be lost,”