Rasikh Salam, 17 Year old Kulgam pacer gets IPL trial call-up

Three-time champions of IPL, Mumbai Indians on Friday called Rasikh Salam- 17-year-old pace prodigy from Jammu and Kashmir- for trials ahead of the IPL 2019 following his impressive outing in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. The trial session will take place in Mumbai tomorrow.

Rasikh, who recently made his debut in the competitive cricket against Rajasthan in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, had played no age-group level cricket before making his entry to the senior side, largely due to Irfan Pathan’s insertion as mentor-cum-player to the side.

Coming from a small village of South Kashmir’s Kulgam, Rasik bowls at an alarming pace and swings the ball both ways. He surprised one and all with his heroic bowling spell against mighty Tamil Nadu batting line-up, taking two big scalps by giving away 45 runs in his quota of 8 overs.

Luckily, an associate member of Mumbai Indians was watching the match and was impressed with Rasikh’s bowling. Jammu and Kashmir went on to win the match by four wickets.

“He (the associate member of Mumbai Indians) was amazed to see Rasik’s pace and swing at such a small age. Later, he invited Rasikh for the trial camp of Mumbai Indians that is scheduled to take place at Mumbai tomorrow,” an official of JKCA told Kashmir Post.

Rasikh came into the limelight after he was nominated by Irfan Pathan in a talent-hunt camp held at Shei-I-Kashmir Stadium, Srinagar. He was highly praised by both Pathan and J&K skipper Parvez Rasool.

Parvez Rasool is the only Jammu and Kashmir cricket to have played in IPL while another all-rounder Manzoor Dar was picked by Kings XI Punjab during last year’s IPL auction but couldn’t make his debut.