Part of the India side at the Under-19 World Cup in 2016, Zeeshan Ansari has had to fight for opportunities, till he got the platform he had been waiting for at IPL 2025
Daya Sagar25-Apr-2025This Eid, the at Mohammad Naeem Ansari’s house tasted sweeter than usual – just the evening before, his son Zeeshan Ansari played his first IPL match after waiting for long. He didn’t just make his IPL debut, he made it an occasion, with the wickets of three international batters: Jake Fraser-McGurk, Faf du Plessis and KL Rahul.Soon, people from the neighbourhood started gathering outside Naeem’s small, half-built house in Chaudhary Tola in Lucknow. Even the ones that had taunted Naeem for Zeeshan “wasting his time” and “dreaming big”.The idea had struck Naeem in the early 2000s. Naeem was married, had children, and didn’t want them to do the same work – of running their tailor shop – his brothers and he did. He felt that if a child from the family did well in a sport, a government job could come with it, and that would help the family.Related
Zampa's IPL ends due to shoulder injury
'Everything comes from practice' – Aniket Verma on six-hitting
In the late-2000s, Naeem got four children from his joint family enrolled in the Government Sports Academy not far from their house. That’s where Zeeshan learnt the basics of cricket and now, almost two decades on, has been Sunrisers Hyderabad’s primary spinner at IPL 2025, though not with the kind of success that debut had promised: he has picked up just two more wickets in five subsequent matches.Zeeshan started playing cricket at the age of four or five, like many kids in India do, on the streets around his house, but unlike most others, he was more interested in bowling than batting. Apparently, even at that early stage, Zeeshan tried to give the ball a rip.Gopal Singh, Zeeshan’s coach at the academy, tells ESPNcricinfo, “He came to me when he was 11 or 12 years old. Before that, he had gone to another academy in Chowk [an area in Lucknow] for a year, but that was a little far from his house. Even though his deliveries didn’t quite reach the batters, he used to bowl legspin from the very beginning.”Some children have a body language that suggests that they can become good players in the future. When Zeeshan used to train, run, and play cricket with a tennis ball, that quality was visible. However, it was only after two or three years of training that I was convinced he could become a good legspinner.”Zeeshan would wake up early and go to the academy, where he would catch hold of whichever batters he could and bowl at them throughout the day. When one batter got tired, another would be summoned, and this continued. It didn’t stop when he got home either. His uncle Gayas Ansari would bat for him in the lane adjacent to the house. Gayas had been given the responsibility of ferrying Zeeshan to and from the academy and playing with him at home. In exchange, Gayas – who played his share of tennis-ball cricket in his youth – didn’t have to spend as much time at the tailor’s shop as his brothers did.Naeem Ansari (extreme left) poses with members of the family in front of the old house Zeeshan is helping repair•Daya SagarIn 2014, when Zeeshan was 15 and had performed well at the club and district level, he was called for the Under-16 state (Uttar Pradesh) trials. He was not selected but, remarkably, got into the Under-19 and Under-23 teams the same season.At the Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy in 2014-15, Zeeshan took 40 wickets – the highest – and at the Colonel CK Nayudu Under-23 tournament, he got 18 wickets, including three five-fors, at an average of 13.44.Zeeshan was rewarded immediately by being named in India’s 2016 Under-19 World Cup squad, led by Ishan Kishan. But, with spin-bowling allrounders like Washington Sundar, Mayank Dagar and Mahipal Lomror in the squad, Zeeshan got a chance to play only two matches.He got paid, though, and used it to repair the leaks in his house.After the World Cup, Zeeshan took 30 wickets, the most for Uttar Pradesh, in the CK Nayudu Trophy in 2016-17, and was selected for the Ranji Trophy the following year. Making his debut under Suresh Raina’s captaincy against Railways, Zeeshan returned twin three-fors, but his name was missing from the playing XI for the next match. He has only played five first-class matches so far for 17 wickets to go with one wicketless outing in T20s at the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in February 2019.
“No matter how disappointed he was, he would be found at the ground the next morning for training. He is a fighter, and had no option. What would he have done if he had left cricket?”Gopal Singh, Zeeshan’s childhood coach, on the latter’s difficult times from 2017-20
“That was a bad phase. After playing for India in the World Cup, we thought that our good days had arrived; but it was not so,” Naeem tells ESPNcricinfo. “He was getting very few opportunities, while his team-mates like Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan, Khaleel Ahmed, Washington Sundar and Sarfaraz Khan have all played for India and also in the IPL. Along with him, we also felt dejected. However, we never asked him to quit cricket and he never gave up. He always said that the ones who were getting opportunities were better than him and that his chance would come.”Gopal adds, “He would cry at times. We would also get sad, but we motivated him. One of the best things about him was that no matter how disappointed he was, he would be found at the ground the next morning for training. He is a fighter, and had no option. What would he do if he had left cricket? His father also wanted him to play.”Zeeshan continued to play elsewhere, though, at the district and state level, in the corporate circuit with Indian Oil Corporation, and in Lucknow’s local A-division tournaments, where players like Akshdeep Nath, Vipraj Nigam and Mohammad Saif played with him. Apart from this, he also went to play in the Kolkata club circuit in 2023. Last year, Zeeshan also got an offer from Mizoram to play for them as a professional, but turned it down.Zeeshan Ansari hasn’t had much success after a three-wicket haul in his first match•BCCIThe turning point in Zeeshan’s life came when he won the Purple Cap with 24 wickets in the Uttar Pradesh Premier League in 2024, and his team Meerut Mavericks won the title. Multiple IPL franchises called him for trials. Eventually, Zeeshan was bought by SRH for INR 40 lakh in the big auction in late 2024, which Zeeshan’s father called “God’s miracle” – “Nobody gets anything before it’s time for it.”In IPL 2025, after Adam Zampa picked up an injury – and was later ruled out – Zeeshan became SRH’s frontline spinner despite the presence of Rahul Chahar in the squad and has continued to play despite not being among the wickets much.Zeeshan is on TV every other day and that pleases his 90-year-old grandmother, who does not know what her grandson is doing but smiles when she sees him in action.As for Naeem and his family, the ambitions aren’t too big, They don’t want to leave their old house and live in some upmarket colony. They just want Zeeshan to help get the rest of the house repaired, which he had started doing after the Under-19 World Cup.
