Meet Rasikh Salam: The Boy Irfan Pathan Spotted. The man RCB trusted

On the eve of the IPL 2026 final, as Royal Challengers Bengaluru prepare to defend their title against Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, the senior bowlers took an optional practice session. Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the men who had led the charge all season, the men who had nothing left to prove to anyone, were rested. Rasikh Salam Dar came in and bowled.

To understand why, you have to go back to the Srinagar selection trial in 2018, where the teenager was walking out with his arms out and an extraordinary slower ball on the back of his hand. He had been to these trials before, every year, as a junior. He never made the 30-man squad. He learned the hard way not to wait for rejection to stand his ground.

He was still walking when Irfan Pathan told the assistant to go and stop him.

For a man who has spent his career learning that opportunities don’t wait, that doors open and close and sometimes don’t open again, optional training on the eve of the IPL final is not optional. It never was.

DON’T GO YET

Rasikh Salam Dar, 26, from Kulgam, Kashmir, finished IPL 2026 as RCB’s second leading wicket-taker: 19 wickets in 12 matches, four more than Hazlewood, at an average of 21.32. He took 3 for 27 in the final, dismissing Nishant Sindhu, Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan to become only the second uncapped player in IPL history to take three or more wickets in the final of the tournament. RCB restricted Gujarat Titans to 155 for 8 and won by five wickets to lift back-to-back titles.

And yet, for most of the season, Rasikh operated in exactly the kind of silence he always inhabited. He came on in the first or second change, behind Bhuvneshwar and Hazlewood. He has completed his quota for four overs in eight of his 12 appearances. He didn’t create a spell that would stop a conversation mid-sentence, or a signal that would change overnight. He just took wickets, kept the economy tight and gave the batsmen the feeling – a little late – that they had misread something.

Irfan Pathan mentored the J&K cricket set-up in 2018, sorting 70 or 80 boys at a time and looking for something worth keeping. Most of them blurred into each other. Rasikh almost left before Pathan could make up his mind.

“I saw him bowl a few balls and after he bowled a few balls I told him to stand aside. Then he started walking away as he thought he was not selected. He kept walking away with his brother,” recalled Pathan in his chat with IndiaToday.in.

“I asked him, ‘Why did you leave? I told you to stay there.’ He said: ‘I thought it happened like every year. I’ve come here for junior trials and I’ve never been part of a 30-man squad.'”

The history of early rejection was written all over the teenager. But Pathan had already written his name in his book. Rasikh finished as the second highest wicket-taker for RCB in IPL 2026 (Courtesy: Reuters)

He wasn’t an obvious prospect. He is not tall. He does not carry the frame that announces the fast bowler from the ground. His alignment was off, his stride collapsing beneath him. But Pathan couldn’t get through two things: zip and a slower ball on the back of the hand.

“His position wasn’t right, he was dropping a lot. But he was beating batsmen with zip. And the slower one – the back of the hand – was very impressive. It doesn’t happen regularly in general.”

Pathan included him in the senior team. Politics began almost immediately. Local voters pushed back, regional loyalties broke the room, with one voter reportedly resigning in protest. Pathan absorbed it all without a word.

“I played for India. Talent is much more important to me than all this politics. I didn’t even say it publicly because it’s not me. I’m there to do my job and I did my job anyway.”

ONE VIDEO AIRPORT

The journey to Mumbai Indians, Rasikh’s first IPL franchise, was piecemeal. Pathan dealt with a hip flexor problem, kept Rasikh in Vijay Hazare’s squad, worked on his fitness ahead of the England Under-19 tour. Then came a trajectory-changing moment – Pathan, passing through the Mumbai airport, bumped into Mumbai Indians head scout Rahul Sanghvi and pulled out his phone. For: Rasikh bowling new ball in practice match, big banana inswinger, hat trick.

Mumbai Indians built much of their dynasty on exactly this kind of find – a diamond in the rough, a talent in the rough that others passed by, and Sanghvi knew what he was looking at. He watched intently and promised judgment. When it came, Rohit Sharma and TA Sekar were in the nets. They were amazed. Mumbai Indians signed him.

“Mumbai, to be very honest, were the first team that really looked after him,” says Pathan. “Even in the offseason, they took care of him. They gave him a base. They supported him the whole time.”

One game in 2019. Then a ban.

Rasikh was among more than 200 cricketers penalized by the BCCI that year for submitting faulty birth certificates. He was 18. His career had barely taken off. The two years that followed robbed him of everything: franchise support, momentum, a sense that cricket was something that would keep happening to him.

“Once you get banned, you have nowhere to go,” says Pathan.

“This is the time when you really want support and you really want support. Sometimes you don’t say it, but you want support.”

Pathan’s philosophy as a mentor does not allow for fair weather presence.

“It’s not my job to be there when they’re doing well. When they’re doing well, they’re on their own. They’re enjoying themselves. They’re like birds—flying and having fun. But when they’re struggling, this is the time to mentor. This is the time to really support.”

He stayed. The meeting when their paths crossed. Calling from any of them. Interviews with a family that has followed a career they have barely begun to celebrate make it seem like it may not happen at all.

The return from the ban brought its complication. Back in the IPL fold with KKR in 2022, Rasikh managed just two matches – and an injury that was never properly identified during his tenure quietly undermined everything. He couldn’t play regularly, he couldn’t gain strength, he couldn’t show what six years since that Srinagar court had brought.

Pathan decided that words and phone calls were not enough. He called Ashish Kaushik, a physiotherapist and trusted friend at a private clinic in Bengaluru, and arranged for Rasikh to go. Not a month. Not for a defined rehabilitation window. For six months.

He stayed in Bengaluru, far from home, far from Kashmir, and worked there day after day. Kaushik rebuilt him, session by session, until his silently failing body was no longer a hindrance. “He stayed there for six months, worked hard and his fitness improved,” says Pathan. “Once his fitness improved, he started playing better cricket.

Despite the ban, despite the injury, despite the six months in a city that was not his, Rasikh continued to train. He was still playing local cricket. He kept showing up.

“We owe more to his mental strength than anything else,” says Pathan. “It wasn’t about anyone else. It was about him and how he did it. Only he knows the person who’s going through hard times. Sometimes you don’t even listen to people in those stages.”

“That two-year ban made him a man. It really made him a man because he was a boy before.”

THE FOURTH CLUB. FIRST CHANCE

The return, when it came, was slow. Two games for KKR in 2022. Then Delhi Capitals, where something has finally settled: nine wickets in eight games in 2024, enough to make the league look again. RCB paid Rs 6 crore for him in the mega auction 2025. His first season in Bengaluru saw two appearances and one goal. Four franchises, one solid run, and a price tag that seemed like a leap of faith bordering on stubbornness to anyone looking in.

But RCB did not flinch. And on the advice of Krunal Pandya, in 2025 Rasikh made a move that would quietly prove to be decisive – shifting his home affiliation from J&K to Baroda in search of a fuller season, better competitive exposure and more cricket. He played the whole season. He came back sharper.

When Yash Dayal’s absence this season opened up a spot in RCB’s pace attack, management first turned to left-arm pacer Abhinandan Singh. It didn’t work out. Then came Rasikh. He didn’t let the door close behind him. Rasikh has finally found a home with RCB (Courtesy: PTI)

Rajat Patidar watched all this from the inside and was never surprised.

“When we gave Rasikh a chance, he looked confident because he has been playing in the IPL for three to four years,” he said.

“He’s very confident in his skills, his slower, back-of-the-hand deliveries and especially the yorkers. Whenever I see him, it’s clear that he’s clear about his role and what he has to do. I always say to my bowlers: if you have a plan, go and execute it. That’s it.”

Asked what he would say to his former student now, Irfan Pathan doesn’t hold back on the title or wickets in the final. He talks about improving – always improving or finding a way to outsmart the batsman when the pace and variation hit their ceiling. He evokes Sachin Tendulkar and remains a student till his last day.

“Just try and get better. And if you can’t get better, you’re always going to outwit the batter. Always read the game. Have that awareness.”

“I always knew he could do a lot more. I think he can bowl the new ball as well. He has the talent to swim with the new ball and swing it both ways. As you can see Bhuvi, the way he maneuvers his wrist, he has the same ability.”

And then, with the warmth of someone who has known a cricketer since before the cricketer knew himself, Pathan says something that has nothing to do with seam position or new-ball duties.

“I always want him to bat at number eight. I always tease him saying ‘you can’t bat’. But I know he can.”

The title is won. The final was taking place. Somewhere on the fringes of what Rasikh Salam Dar has already done, there is still more to come in silence.

– The end

Published on:

03 Jun 2026 10:32 IST