'Baramulla's Steyn' gets the prize for consistency

When Delhi Capitals picked Auqib Nabi for ₹8.4 crore at the IPL auction, the eight-figure price tag told only part of the story.

- Samreen Razzaqui

For followers of Indian domestic cricket, the Jammu & Kashmir pacer's rise is less a surprise and more the reward for years of quiet, relentless work.Coming from Baramulla in north Kashmir, Nabi has never had the luxury of short cuts. He has built his career spell by spell, season by season, emerging as J&K's bowling spearhead and one of the most consistent fast bowlers in the Ranji Trophy in the last couple of years.

"Overall coaching is not only about skills," an ecstatic J&K bowling coach P Krishna Kumar, who has worked closely with Nabi, said. "You have to spend time with the player, talk to him, understand personal things. Only then does a player start trusting the coach.'