He and his brother Sarfaraz Khan will represent the Mumbai team in the Ranji Trophy knockouts once the 18-year-old Musheer is selected in the Prithvi Shaw-led side. Sachin Tendulkar’s son Arjun has not been picked for the match against Uttarakhand to be played in Bangalore, while Ajinkya Rahane is battling his hamstring injury.
Opener and left-arm spinner Musheer had scored 670 runs in nine matches in the Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy at an average of 67, including two centuries and five fifties. Last year he was the Man of the Tournament in the A Division Police Shield and the Madhav Mantri One Day Tournament. Sarfaraz and Musheer’s father is a cricket coach. The idea of making his children professional cricketers came to his mind when he was taunted by a cricketer whom he had coached. Naushad once shared this sentence with The Indian Express.
The player had said, “I had talent, I played. If you have talent, then show your children by making them players, don’t you? Now both the children of Naushad are cricketers. Sarfaraz was seen playing for Delhi Capitals (DC) in IPL 2022. At the same time, Musheer has been selected in the Ranji team. Sarfaraz recalled how he had requested the team manager for a Panama Cap for his brother during the last leg of the Ranji tournament.
Sarfaraz told The Indian Express, “I had requested the manager for an extra cap from Mumbai for my brother Musheer. God has graced. It is his (Mushir) and my father’s hard work. A lot has been sacrificed to make us cricketers. Musheer is currently training in Surat after getting selected for the National Cricket Academy Zonal Camp.
Musheer says that he did what his father told him to do. He said, “My brother Sarfaraz Khan and I have only one dream – to play for India and make my father happy. This news has definitely made me happy and I am thankful to the selectors and MCA. I have a long way to go and a lot more to do.”
Describing Musheer’s journey to become a cricketer, Naushad said, “It all started when his club Payyade SC decided to make him an opener batsman at the age of 15 against senior players. From there his confidence grew. I tried not to make the same mistakes that I did while practicing with Sarfaraz. Sarfaraz used to train in the nets in the evening. When he went to play for Mumbai, he was struggling a bit with the red ball in the morning. I realized my mistake. So now we practice in the morning when there is dew on the pitch. That’s why Musheer plays fast bowlers comfortably.
His father Naushad has been an important contributor to Sarfaraz and Musheer becoming cricketers. He did a variety of things to support his passion for the sport. The father once told The Indian Express how the family lived through difficult times. He said, “We lived in slums, used to stand in queues for toilets, where my sons were slapped and turned back. We had nothing and will not take anything back. Sarfaraz once told me, ‘Abbu, what if this doesn’t happen? We can sell track-pants. ,