Bengal all-rounder, Shahbaz Ahmed, was called up to his first ODI after he was called a substitute for Washington Sundar ahead of Zimbabwe’s ODI.
Shahbaz has been instrumental to Bengal’s domestic success later this year. Shahbaz played 18 first place games and scored 1041 runs averaging 41.64 with seventy-one hundred. He also picked 57 wickets with an economic rate of 2.64. Shahbaz has scored over 500 runs and won 35 straight runs at the Ranji Trophy 2019-20, as Bengal reached the final.
Shahbaz’s A-list record is equally impressive. In 26 games, he had 662 runs at an average of 47.28 and 24 place runs at an economy rate of 4.43.
Shahbaz’s IPL journey started at Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2020. Over time, he has become an integral part of the team. He was released before the 2022 IPL auction but RCB re-signed him for Rs 2.4 crore. “If Shahbaz leaves for Rs 2.4 when we pick him in 2020, it wouldn’t surprise me,” Malolan Rangarajan, head of scouting and coaching at Royal Challengers Bangalore, said in a conversation. In IPL 2022, Shahbaz scored 219 runs with an attack speed of 120.99 and won four batting at an economic speed of 9.60.
“I credit the entire scouting team for identifying him. We started researching him in December 2019. Our selection process is based on a lot of things, chief among which is the thorough evaluation we do on a player’s background. . That’s where Shahbaz stands out to us. He’s a cricketer beyond his skill set, so he’ll give us a lot more when pushed against a wall because those are the circumstances in which he was raised – personal life his or his ticketing career. He is a native of Haryana. Imagine not playing for Haryana in Ranji through age groups and then moving to another part of the country and debuting your senior team with a domestic powerhouse like Bengal. That speaks to his character.”
