For long before Kashmir Valley woke up to a champion cricket team, its willows had peddled dreams across the country. On Saturday, the famed willows found their winning players from their midst as Jammu and Kashmir created history by clinching their first-ever Ranji Trophy crown with a commanding triumph over Karnataka in Hubballi.
Acknowledgement had arrived on a late flight overnight, with J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his compact entourage, followed by a handful of passionate, hardcore fans settled in nearby Bengaluru. After the win, the CM’s Office announced a cash prize of Rs 2 crore for the team, and government appointments for members of the squad.
In his 24th year of playing the Ranji, J&K captain Paras Dogra, 41, and his boys fulfilled a dream that an unheralded eleven led by fast-bowling all-rounder Mehboob Iqbal would have dreamt of when they etched their first-ever win over Services at Bikram Park, Udhampur, in 1982. Incidentally, Karnataka lifted the championship that year.
Sixty-six winters and 345 games later, the men from J&K stormed the bastions of a vaunted Karnataka top order by beating them at their own game, bolting past the ceiling of a historic Ranji Trophy title in this quaint mofussil. Armed with a poised skipper, bred in Palampur, not far from Jammu, and steely coaches from Delhi and Rajasthan, J&K swept up the formalities on the last day. A 477-run lead had inevitably given them a convincing grip on Day Four. Lifting it to 633 without losing another wicket on Day Five proved the hosts were battered, fair and square.
A partisan crowd thronged the makeshift cement stands covered by pale indigo awnings over the week. The boisterous energy did not deter Dogra’s boys in the least. “Farak nahi padta. Laakhon log aate hain jab hum Kashmir mein local tournaments khelte the. (The strength of the home crowd didn’t matter. Lakhs of people used to come to watch us in local games in Kashmir),” Dogra had said on Wednesday.
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The lustre of the win played out against a passionate home crowd on a sultry afternoon in partial silence. Dogra and his boys had each other for company on the field, 2000 kilometres away from the shimmering meadows and mountains they call home, for the majority of the final. On Saturday, the management pooled in local dhols to amp up the vibes. A Bhangra procession erupted when Captain Dogra declared the second innings at 2:10 pm, with both sides settling the draw with handshakes.
For a region and cricket association embedded in timeless conflicts, the landmark singularly belonged to the playing contingent and its many defining characters. The headline act was delivered by the Baramulla metronome – Auqib Nabi – who sensationally skinned 26 of the 50 opposition batters in the knockouts. He bettered his bests and brought down heavyweights away from home on the bounce – in Indore and Kalyani – before a fitting conclusion in the north Karnataka region.
Jammu & Kashmir pip a star-studded Karnataka to win Ranji Trophy 2025-26 title. (PHOTO: PTI)
Having trekked down from Bangalore to Hubballi to watch his home state play was 25-year-old Nusrullah from Baramulla. Saturday was about receiving that vital shot in the arm after taking off on a fast-bowling dream to Bengaluru seven months ago. He had quit his job as an optometrist and enrolled in a prestigious cricket academy in the garden city, the cradle of Karnataka cricket and home to the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence. He had never known of cricket in Baramulla, nor of Auqib’s meteoric rise from the same village.
Watching the 29-year-old Auqib’s mystical wrists conjure wickets against Karnataka’s Test-match studded top-order in Hubballi this week has instilled Nusrullah with purpose and a belief to knock on the doors of his home state team soon.
“Honestly, I never followed Auqib Nabi. I only idolised Mohammed Siraj. The last two days I watched the ball, the seam and the swing Auqib Nabi is having, his whippy wrists,” he says. “I’ve never played in Baramulla, my hometown.” Nusrullah doesn’t know why, but things will change now.
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“The facilities back in Baramulla are very few. We get a lot of facilities in Bengaluru. We don’t get much in Kashmir. In Bengaluru, whatever you want to do, it’s up to you. All you need is inner fire,” Nusrullah says.
Chants in Kashmiri and Dogri filled the Hubbali air as the win neared. “Ek, do, teen, char… asi zyun vaarkaar (We have won, we have won a decisive victory),” roared Abhinav and his friends in Kashmiri from the KSCA Platinum Jubilee Pavilion.
“It isn’t a common saying. I simply found it apt for the moment. It simply means that everything goes well by the grace of God,” says Abhinav, a former U-17 J&K cricketer, who works in Bengaluru.
The seamless coalescence of Jammu and Kashmir is the biggest transformation Abhinav has seen over the past two decades, from his playing days.
“You don’t feel that this bunch [of players] are from different geographies, different cultures, different languages – Jammu and Kashmir. That is what makes me proud. The state has presented a solid, unified stand, and they have shown what we can achieve when we believe in ourselves,” says Abhinav.
From Doda to Baramulla, Anantnag to Kalakote and to Jammu, Dogra’s devils have arrived – “Asi zyun vaarkaar”.
