Auqib Nabi was on his way to the Centre of Excellence when his phone rang. He had already made peace with the fact that his wait for an India call-up would continue. The squad for the Sri Lanka Tests had been announced, and Nabi was heading to the CoE with a familiar objective – work harder, bowl better and keep waiting.
Then came the call that changed everything.
“I was in the airport when I got a call (from one of the selectors). He asked me where I was. I said ‘I am headed to the CoE’. He told me ‘Don’t go there, come to Sri Lanka’.
“At first I couldn’t believe it. It was unexpected. Because the squad was already announced. I was heading to the CoE, thinking I would work harder.”
Nabi’s journey to that moment had been anything but straightforward. For years, the Jammu and Kashmir pacer had been making a case for himself in domestic cricket, putting up the kind of numbers that made his continued absence from the India setup increasingly difficult to ignore.
He took 44 wickets in the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy season before producing an even more remarkable campaign the following year. Nabi claimed 60 wickets in 10 matches at an average of 12.56, helping Jammu and Kashmir win their maiden Ranji Trophy title and earning the Player of the Tournament award.
Yet the India call continued to elude him.
Even his first IPL season with Delhi Capitals did not provide the breakthrough he might have hoped for. Nabi played five matches in IPL 2026 and did not manage a single wicket, a far cry from the numbers that had made him one of the most prolific fast bowlers in domestic red-ball cricket.
There were moments when the wait appeared to be stretching beyond reason. He missed out on the one-off Test against Afghanistan despite his extraordinary Ranji season, with his omission drawing criticism from the likes of former India chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar.
‘I KNEW I WOULD GET THE CALL-UP’
Nabi, however, did not allow the uncertainty around selection to become the centre of his cricketing life.
“Yes, I had expectations. But the mindset of a cricket player should be of performing and that the other people are watching,” Nabi told fellow uncapped player Saransh Jain in a video shared by the BCCI.
That mindset perhaps explains why the call from the selector caught him by surprise. Nabi knew he was doing enough to put himself in the conversation. He simply did not know when the opportunity would arrive.
“I knew that I would get the call-up today or tomorrow because when you are doing well for so many years, you are meant to get the returns from the hard work.”
His performances eventually took him to the India A setup on the Sri Lanka tour, where he strengthened his case with a four-wicket haul in the unofficial Test. But even then, he was not part of the original India Test squad.
It took Jasprit Bumrah’s injury-induced unavailability from the series for the door to finally open.
And when it did, Nabi did not need convincing that he belonged in the conversation. His belief had been built over years of bowling, travelling, waiting and starting again.
“So I would bowl with the mindset that my job is to take wickets and perform and the rest is up to the one above. I felt great when my name came up. My family is very happy and I don’t think there can be anything greater than this,” Nabi added.
The call came at an airport, almost as an afterthought to a journey that was supposed to take him back to the CoE.
Instead, Nabi changed course for Sri Lanka – and towards the India cap he had spent years chasing.
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