Follow UsJammu & Kashmir (J&K) right-arm pacer Auqib Nabi stunned everyone in the ongoing Duleep Trophy when he picked four wickets in four balls playing for North Zone against East Zone.
Nabi has been around the J&K state team for some time now, and he impressed in the last season of Ranji Trophy when he picked 44 wickets in just 15 innings at an average of just 13.9. Now, he has begun the 2025/26 domestic season with aplomb as he picked up four wickets in four deliveries against East Zone, and became only the third bowler in history to pick up a Duleep Trophy hat-trick after Kapil Dev (1978/79) and Sairaj Bahutule (2001).
Against East Zone, Nabi wreaked havoc in the 53rd over as he first clean bowled Virat Singh on the fourth delivery, then got Manishi LBW on the fifth, and finally completed his hat-trick by cleaning up Mukhtar Hussain on the last delivery. He then returned in the 55th over and dismissed Suraj Jaiswal on the first ball itself to get four wickets in four balls.
Nabi completely broke the back of East Zone’s lower order as he also dismissed Mohammed Shami LBW in the 57th over to complete his fifer and ensure a 175-run first innings lead for North Zone, making it really hard for the opposition to come back in the game from here. Notably, he is also decent with the bat and scored 44 off just 33 deliveries for North Zone.
This was the 28-year-old’s ninth fifer overall in First-class cricket. He has 95 wickets in just 48 innings so far at a stellar average of 21.3. With such a splendid performance, an India A call-up looks imminent for the skilful J&K pacer.