Jammu and Kashmir players pose with the Ranji Trophy title after the team’s victory against Karnataka at the KSCA Stadium in Hubballi, Karnataka. (PTI) There is a classic scene in Gangs of Wasseypur where Sardar Khan (played by Manoj Bajpayee), Nasir Ahmed (played by Piyush Mishra) and Asgar Khan (played by Jameel Khan) rob a petrol pump owned by coal mafia don Ramadhir Singh (played by Dhu Tigmanshu). As he tries to escape, Sardar Khan slips from his slipper and Nasir Ahmed rushes forward and jumps into the jeep with a triumphant sneer: “First hum, first hum.That move feels familiar now. Ever since 41-year-old Paras Dogra led Jammu and Kashmir to their historic Ranji Trophy triumph, the rush has begun to claim a share of the glory. Political leaders, administrators, supporters and various stakeholders are lining up, each eager to say, “Huh first.”
J&K is making history! Jammu and Kashmir won Ranji Trophy 2025-26 for the first time | emotional family response
They say it takes a village to raise a child. The same goes for this team. Affection from former cricketers tinged with apprehension, love and encouragement from captain Paras Dogra, nurturing from coach Ajay Sharma, talent spotting by Irfan Pathan, the professional eye of selectors and finally the confidence instilled by social media played its part in allowing the Jammu and Kashmir cricketers to spread their wings.After winning the title, Auqib Nabi, who grew up in Baramulla under curfew and took 60 wickets in the 2025-26 Ranji Trophy, making it 104 in two seasons, now wants to return home for a much-needed break.But he feels the title has brought him closer to his dream of opening a cricket academy in Baramulla where he can nurture more auqibs.“I am one step closer, bhai,” he tells TimesofIndia.com from Hubballi.“I would like to open an academy. There is absolutely nothing here. When I started playing, I had to go to Bengaluru for training and played lower division matches there. I want to find and train more Auqib Nabis from Baramulla,” he says.Second Nabi
File photo by Abid Nabi (R). (Instagram)
Before Auqib Nabi, who mesmerizes the batsmen with his perfect length and swing, there was another Nabi, Abid Nabi, the first poster boy of Jammu and Kashmir cricket.It was 2000 when the 6-foot-2 pitcher with broad shoulders and a smooth action caught the attention of Dennis Lillee at the MRF Pace Foundation. The Aussie legend alerted fellow Aussie Greg Chappell, the then coach of Team India, and Nabi was soon rolling into the Indian nets.“It feels like redemption. It took twenty years,” Abid Nabi tells the site.“Jo khwaab itne saalon pehle dekha woh aaj poora kar diya ladkon ne (a dream I saw many years ago has come true),” he says, pausing before finishing his sentence.Nabi jogs down memory lane but doesn’t want to talk about his time in the Indian cricket team. Instead, he talks about the under-19 one-day game, when Jammu and Kashmir beat Haryana under his leadership.“It was the first big win against the best team of any J&K team. It was in 2003-04 if I’m not mistaken. It took us more than two decades, but J&K has finally arrived. The infrastructure is still the same. The boys play on grass wickets. You can’t have cricket in the valley after October because of the weather. Most of them didn’t have short spikes when they first came. Please forgive me when they first came,” says Nabi, his voice cracking. he is suffocating.
I was dropped because I did not make dua and salaam for the selectors and the coach. There was no professionalism. The less I say the better
Abid Nabi
Nabi’s career was derailed after he joined the now defunct Indian Cricket League.“I was dropped from the J&K side because I didn’t do dua and salaam for the selectors and the coach. There was no professionalism. The less I say the better,” he says.Meanwhile, twenty years later, another Nabi almost single-handedly steered J&K to the title. He could have done the same in the previous season. In the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy, he took 44 wickets in eight matches, the second most in a season. His performance helped Jammu and Kashmir qualify for the quarter-finals, where Kerala leveled them by one run in the first innings.“This one-run loss against Kerala gave me sleepless nights,” said Auqib Nabi after being picked by Delhi Capitals for Rs 8.40 crore in the IPL auction.Those who sowed the seeds
Budding cricketers from Jammu and Kashmir during training. (photo by special arrangement)
After the end of the fourth day of the final, sports journalist Abid Hussain Khan, who has been covering J&K cricket tirelessly for the past two decades, sent an emotional text to this reporter.“I wish I was there. In 20 years of sports journalism, I’ve always dreamed of a moment like this and when it finally happens, I wasn’t there to witness it. In fact, I might not be invited when he finally comes home,” Abid’s message read.He credits the current regime of the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association, a three-member panel set up by the BCCI.“The BCCI sub-committee led by Brigadier Anil Gupta and Mithun Manhas, with whom I do not share good relations, deserves credit. Manhas is a tough taskmaster who did not budge even under the harshest criticism. He ended the star culture and once even punished two IPL cricketers who were late for practice,” he says.For years, Jammu and Kashmir had only a token presence in the Ranji Trophy. No international match has been played in the state since 1986. Rain forced the abandonment of the fifth India-New Zealand ODI series in Jammu in 1988.Parvez Rasool, the first international cricketer from the state, credited former Indian captain Bishan Singh Bedi, who was appointed as a coach and mentor in 2011, for changing the mindset.
Former Indian cricketer Parvez Rasool (ANI Photo)
“He changed our mindset. Earlier, when they played J&K, we thought we would just participate. But Bedi sir taught us that you have to go and compete. He taught us that we have to fight, not just participate. He brought a spark in me and in Jammu and Kashmir cricket,” he told TimesofIndia.com in November last year.Responding to Rasool, Abid Hussain Khan says the mindset changed first under Bedi and later when Irfan Pathan joined the Jammu and Kashmir side as a player-cum-mentor.“During his tenure, he organized a lot of camps. All the guys you see now, even the ones playing in the IPL, were handpicked by Irfan,” says Abid.Auqib Nabi, the Kohinoor cricketer from Jammu and Kashmir, was first spotted by Pathan during the 2018-19 trial.
(Right to left) Mohammad Tahir, Auqib Nabi and Haziq. (photo by special arrangement)
“He gave me a lot of useful tips about bowling. He was the first one to tell me to work on my wrist and not change anything,” Nabi said.Before leaving, Irfan even wrote an email to JKCA asking the association to invest in Nabi.Many young and senior J&K cricketers feel that he has changed the mindset of the team. J&K have reached the quarter-finals of the 2019-20 Ranji Trophy season.“He instilled the belief that yes, we can also win. We can beat the best domestic teams. Our players can play in the IPL and for India,” says Abid Mushtaq, the left-arm spinner of the victorious Jammu and Kashmir team.Sweet redemption
Jammu and Kashmir’s Yudhvir Singh, Auqib Nabi and others celebrate winning the 2025-26 Ranji Trophy final. (PTI)
On a working Saturday, Samiullah Beigh took a day off and was on his way to the JKCA office with teammates Parvez Rasool, Mohammed Mudhasir, Ram Dayal and others to celebrate a monumental day for Jammu and Kashmir cricket.“Huge achievement. Given that the infrastructure was lacking here and is still not up to par, the journey of this team, this batch of cricketers, is nothing short of a fairy tale,” a proud Beigh tells TimesofIndia.com.“If you see my interviews, I told everyone that this team has the caliber to win the Ranji Trophy. Many laughed, journalists, cricketers. But in the end I was proved right. We always had the talent. The only thing missing was the confidence,” he says.Beigh was a key member of the team that reached the quarter-finals of the 2013-14 Ranji Trophy, where poor fielding decisions cost them the match against Punjab.
People celebrate at the JKCA office after Jammu and Kashmir’s first ever Ranji Trophy win in Jammu on Saturday. (OR)
“Unfortunately, the umpires spoiled our way in 2013-14. In the quarter-final against Punjab in 2013, we bowled them out for 147 for 7. Harbhajan Singh got one over. Everyone heard it except the umpires. He scored 92 and the momentum shifted,” he says.“And when we qualified for the quarter-finals this year and I learned that every match would be live, I told my friends that we were going to win. They asked how I was so sure. I said there would be DRS. In crunch moments, the bigger players put pressure on the umpires for tricky decisions. Sometimes the umpires succumb. But when DRS is thrown out to fix things, everything changed with this final. Ralhu was not see. The decision was later overturned by a third referee,” he adds.And so, unlike the scene from Gangs of Wasseypur, this story does not belong to the man who shouts “first brum”. It belongs to many people who ran together, stumbled together and stayed the course. Jammu and Kashmir’s Ranji Trophy triumph is not about who reached the jeep first. It is about a village that has finally achieved its long-cherished goal.
