Jammu and Kashmir’s pace bowling spearhead, Umar Nazir on Thursday made it to the India ‘C’ team for the upcoming Deodhar Trophy. The 24-year-old owned the call-up on the back of some swashbuckling performances in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
Hailing from South Kashmir’s Pulwama, Umar has always been among the most looked-after cricketers of the state. He has previously appeared for the North Zone team in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy as well.
The 6’2″ tall pacer bowled exceptionally well in Vijay Hazare Trophy, scalping 10 wickets in five matches under the economy of 5. J&K had a terrible start to the tournament as they lost six matches in a row, however, finished the tourney on high note by winning the last three matches.
Pertinently, Umar was the hero of the match for J&K in their historical win over star-studded Tamil Nadu. He bowled a fiery spell of 4/26 in the match. Umar now is among the fewest J&K cricketers to have received a Deodhar Trophy call-up. If given the opportunity, he might end-up earning himself a big name after the conclusion of this tourney.
“He would get to share the dressing room with some greats of Indian cricket like Ajinkya Rahane, which in a way is already a milestone bagged,” a senior J&K cricketer told media.
“This is an opportunity for him to impress national selectors. We hope, he would be given fair chances, so that he could get to show what he has got in him. If nothing, he can at least owe IPL contract with this stint,” he added.
Indian ‘C’ squad: Ajinkya Rahane (capt), Abhinav Mukund, Shubman Gill, R Samarth, Suresh Raina, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan (WK), Vijay Shankar, Washington Sundar, Rahul Chahar, Pappu Roy, Navdeep Saini, Rajneesh Gurbani, Umar Nazir
