At 16, Zeeshan Ansari was the youngest member of the Indian U-19 World Cup team in 2016 that had a posse of future India internationals in its ranks.
While Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan, Washington Sundar, Sarfaraz Khan, Avesh Khan and Khaleel Ahmed were striving to graduate to the next level, Ansari sank into oblivion.
Since then he has played just five Ranji Trophy matches and one Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy contest for Uttar Pradesh.
The wiry leg-spinner from Lucknow’s famous shopping hub Hazratganj wasn’t the centre of attention in that illustrious batch that had six players, who later went on to play for the senior Indian team across formats with varying degrees of success.
On Sunday afternoon, after years of wilderness, the now 25-year-old and better-built Ansari walked into the collective consciousness with wickets of Faf du Plessis, Jake Fraser-McGurk and KL Rahul, albeit in a losing cause for Sunrisers Hyderabad on his IPL debut.
Not afraid to flight the ball, Ansari showed a big heart, something that former U-19 India selector and UP stalwart Gyanendra Pandey was impressed with back then. He was picked for the junior national squad.
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“ Usko Eid se pahle hi Eid mil gayi (He got Eid’s gift before the festivities began). He is a very hardworking bowler,” Pandey, who had played a couple of ODIs for India back in 1999, told PTI.
“Obviously, I don’t want to get into why he didn’t play more for Uttar Pradesh in domestic cricket all these years. But he was UP T20 league’s highest wicket-taker for Meerut Mavericks, and that’s how SRH scouts picked him,” he added.
What Pandey likes about Ansari is his courage whenever he is being challenged by the best in business.
“I was the coach of Kanpur Superstars, and he played for Meerut Mavericks. Sameer Rizvi (who is with DC) is a big name in the UP T20 circuit, and he dismissed him effortlessly. Those who watched the UP T20 league saw his talent, and yesterday, a bigger audience got to watch him play,” Pandey said.
Along with Delhi, UP is another BCCI-affiliated state association which produces battle-hardened players who rise not because of the system but despite it.
He had 17 wickets in five Ranji games, decent if not outstanding, but even then, not getting a chance across any format since 2020 does defy logic.
Son of a tailor in Hazratganj, the senior Ansari never had the means to raise questions about why his son was repeatedly ignored.
Another former UP first-class cricketer, who didn’t wish to be named, said, “Look, Kuldeep Yadav was most of the time busy with international cricket, but somehow our coach Sunil Joshi (former India spinner) didn’t find anything special in the boy.”
“Well, hope that he finds something now. I believe both Vippy (Vipraj Nigam of DC) and Zeeshan can play for UP together.”
His childhood coach, Gopal Singh, who taught him the first lessons in wrist spin at the Lucknow Development Authority when he was around 12, explained how it became a very bizarre situation for Ansari.
“After he came back from the U-19 World Cup in 2016, he played Ranji Trophy and performed decently. Next season, he didn’t play a single game — not even U-19 or U-23. Since he had played Ranji Trophy, people thought why should he go back to U-19s, but then he wasn’t even picked for the senior team,” Gopal said.
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He also said that Ansari as such didn’t go through any financial hardships.
“Yes, they are a middle-class family, but there are no sob stories. Yes, his father is a tailor, but they have a shop, and it was he who brought his son to me, but I don’t think there were any financial struggles as such,” he added.
Gopal thanked Meerut Mavericks skipper and KKR star Rinku Singh for using his ward well during the UP T20 League.
“Rinku supported Zeeshan a lot during the UP T20 league. A leg-spinner needs a lot of confidence from his captain. He was brought into bowl at crucial junctures and that helped him catch the attention of scouts,” he said.
So will he watch any of SRH’s matches from the stadium?
“Zeeshan had called before his debut and said, ‘ Sir aap aa jaiye match dekhne.’ But I didn’t want to jinx anything, and what if I land in Visakhapatnam and he doesn’t play. Let him get regular chances, I will surely be at the Stadium,” said Gopal.