Who is Shahbaz Ahmed, the all-rounder who replaced Washington Sunder for Zimbabwe series?

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed has received his maiden international call for the three-match ODI series against Zimbabwe. Shahbaz will be replacing injured Washington Sunder who has been ruled out of the series. 

It is a golden opportunity for the 27-year-old Ahmed who played extremely in IPL 2022. He was bought by RCB for Rs 2.4 crore. Ahmed is a left-arm spinner and a left-arm batter. In the middle order, he had played some match winning knocks with Dinesh Karthik for RCB. He made his IPL debut in 2020. Till now, he has played a total of 29 games in the cash-rich league, has scored 279 runs and taken 13 wickets.

His records in domestic cricket also speaks volumes. He smashed 78 runs in the quarter-final and then 116 in the against Madhya Pradesh in the semi-final Ranji Trophy. In first class cricket, Ahmed has a batting average of 41.64 and the bowling average of 18.60 and a strike rate. 

Engineer to cricketer: Ahmed was not a cricketer until 2015. He was a student of civil engineering and it was during his studies that he expressed his desire to his father to play cricket. His father agreed but wanted him to also obtain his degree while continuing to play cricket.

At age of the 21, Ahmed moved to Kolkata to play for Tapan Memorial Club (first division), the club was later banned. Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) removed the ban after sometime and now.

Shahbaz, who now play for Bengal, is one of the key players in the team.

Sourav Ganguly's pick: Not many know, but the the Haryana boy was first noticed by BCCI President Sourav Ganguly. It was around 2016 when Bengal's U-23 team had conceded first innings lead to Railways and had also lost to Baroda after taking  innings lead in the first two games of CK Nayudu Trophy.

Ganguly had called coach Sourasish Lahiri to his office. He was the Cricket Association of Bengal's President. Ganguly said to Lahiri,"Patsy (Lahiri's nickname in Bengal circle) weren't you talking about a Haryana lad from Tapan Memorial Club?." Ganguly was told that his name was Shahbaz Ahmed, Outlook reported.

He further said," Yes, I was checking his numbers and this guy has to be special. He scores lot of runs and takes wickets too for his club. Amazing, isn't it? Has to be a special player. Why don't you take him for next match?"

Coach Lahiri recalled this old conversation with Ganguly after Shahbaz's selection in the Indian team.