Taking giant strides

Teen cricket prodigy Musheer Khan, who started creating ripples from the age of six, is taking giant strides into the future. At age 14, he is already representing the under-16 teams of West Zone and Mumbai. And it may not be very far in the future before he makes his way into the Mumbai U-19 team as well.

Musheer was recently called up for the Mumbai U-19 selection matches. He played a few of these matches and took a five-wicket haul before going to Mysuru to represent the West Zone under-16 team.

Brother of former India U-19 player Sarafraz Khan, Musheer was born to a cricketing family and has many firsts to his credit. He made his inter-school debut as a six-year-old while representing Anjuman-i-Islam Allana English school in the Giles Shield tournament and started taking wickets immediately and chipping in with the bat. He later became the youngest player to make his Kanga League debut at the age of eight in 2013. And it didn’t take him long to bag his first five-wicket haul, which was followed by many more. In the same year, he even managed to dismiss Yuvraj Singh in a friendly match and was the cynposure of all eyes.

He continued to sizzle in school cricket and performed well in club cricket as well, where he was pitted against some top senior players in Mumbai. His coach-cum-father Naushad feels he is ready for under-19 cricket.

“He has done consistently well in the last few seasons. He did will in senior club cricket also last season in tournaments like Sportstar, Police Shield, Comrade Shield and Talim Shield. He took seven wickets against a strong Parsee Gymkhana side and did well against DY Patil and Cricket Club of India while representing Islam Gymkhana. He also got runs. All these teams have some of Mumbai’s top cricketers so I don’t see any reason why he can’t perform at the U-19 level at the age of 14,” said Naushad.

Musheer had a three-wicket haul in the two-day match gainst North Zone, which concluded on Wednesday. He is set to play a total of five matches before making his way back home on July 10.

As the Kanga League transfers end on Saturday, Musheer will continue to represent Young Mohammedan SC team in Kanga League, which also  features Naushad and Moeen,  Musheer’s elder brother.

Due to his engagements with the West Zone U-16 team, he is set to miss the opening round match of the Kanga League on July 8, if the weather gods permit some action.

Another of his siblings and former Mumbai Ranji player Sarafraz will play for Payyade Sports Club. “Sarafraz played for our club last season as he was recovering from injury and we didn’t want to risk him. This season he played in the IPL (with Royal Challengers Bangalore) and will go back to Payyade SC in Kanga League,” he said.

With his left-arm orthodox bowling Musheer has spun a web over batsmen and is a utility batsman. Last year he scored a double ton for West Zone in the under-14 tournament. He has been scoring consistently in club cricket also.

Mumbai under-16 selector Atul Ranade feels Musheer has the ability to represent the India U-19 team in the future. “He is very young now but he is a talented cricketer. He has it in him to go the distance,” said Ranade.