Shahbaz Nadeem: Making all the right noises for a national call-up

Shahbaz Nadeem, who was born in the old little town of Muzaffarpur, Bihar, started playing professional cricket at an early age. From the Bihar U14s, he went on to represent India in the U19s. Nadeem is a left-arm spinner who is known for his courageous slow bowling. Apart from being a quality bowler, Nadeem is also an acrobatic fielder.

In the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy, Shahbaz Nadeem created a new world record in List A cricket on September 20, 2018. Dismissing Rajasthan for 73 runs, he recorded the best ever bowling figures(10-4-10-8), breaking the world record of former India spinner Rahul Sanghvi.

At one stage of the match, there seemed chances of Nadeem picking up all 10 wickets. He got his eighth wicket at the end of his 8th over but before getting his next over, Anukul Roy, his fellow left-arm spinner, dismissed Rahul Chahar to break the sequence.

ICC also tweeted about Shahbaz Nadeem's record for best figures in List A cricket:

10-4-10-8 👏👏The record for best figures in List A cricket was broken today by Shahbaz Nadeem!➡️ https://t.co/JartUM7quJ pic.twitter.com/EjC6H9dYuy

— ICC (@ICC) September 20, 2018

In 1971, during the early days of limited-over cricket, Keith Boyce became the first player to pick eight-wicket haul.

Best bowling performances in List A matches

Nadeem topped the wicket-takers list for two back-to-back Ranji Trophy seasons and has been a consistent performer for Jharkhand in all formats including the four-day Ranji Trophy. In 2015-16 Ranji Trophy season, he bagged 51 wickets and to prove that it was no one-off fluke, Nadeem picked up 56 wickets in 2016-17 Ranji Trophy season too.

Despite continuous fine performances, Nadeem is yet to get his India cap. The 29-year-old Shahbaz was first recognized when he bagged 9 wickets against Sikkim in U-15 game and it has been his and his father's dream since then to see him playing for team India.

Nadeem is ready to do everything to make selectors take note of his performance. He just desires to represent India. From the time he started to play, he and his family had just one dream - to play for the country. On Thursday also, his father called him up and appreciated him and reminded him that playing for India should be the ultimate dream.

Even ICC knows about the dream of Nadeem and tweeted about the same:

After claiming the best ever List A bowling figures yesterday, Shahbaz Nadeem has said he isn't giving up on the 'ultimate dream' of playing for the India national side.➡️ https://t.co/GhsLullYdX pic.twitter.com/behlkgLq5h

— ICC (@ICC) September 21, 2018

The 29-year-old Shahbaz Nadeem has played 99 First-class matches and bagged 375 wickets and is trying very hard to make it to the National Team. Nadeem is still optimistic about getting India cap and believes that BCCI is keeping an eye on his performance. He trusts that his performance in the ongoing Vijay Hazare trophy will take him a step closer to his dream.

Speaking about his performance against Rajasthan, Nadeem told PTI, “I didn’t know until some people told me that I had broken the world record. It feels really good to play for the state (team) and do well and help it win matches.” He added, “I was happy with my performance and the hat-trick made it more special. It is nice to do that.”

Nadeem has devoted 14 years of his life to domestic cricket and represented Bihar, Jharkhand, U-19, India A, but his ultimate dream to represent India internationally is yet to be fulfilled.

Shahbaz Nadeem has been making all the right noises with his performance. He has been knocking on the doors of team India for a while now. He should be rewarded with a national call-up.