Six years ago, a fast bowler’s nickname was enough to get Robin Singh’s attention. Singh, the coach at the GenNext Cricket Academy in Patna, had asked his fast bowler nephew for recommendations.
“My nephew told me Sakib’s nickname on the tennis-ball cricket circuit was ‘Rabada’ because he was fast. I am most excited to coach fast bowlers. I asked my nephew to ask him to come to Patna. With the leather ball Sakib was not accurate, but he had potential. He was nippy off the wicket. For most fast bowlers, after the ball pitches it loses pace. Sakib’s loss was minimal,” Singh tells The Indian Express about his first impressions of a 15-year-old Sakib.
On his IPL debut, Sakib Hussain, now 21, took 4 for 24 for Sunrisers Hyderabad against Rajasthan Royals in Hyderabad on Monday. Fellow debutant Praful Hinge took 4 for 34. Between them, two men nobody had heard of dismantled Rajasthan Royals on the same evening.
From tennis-ball specialist to CSK net bowler to KKR bench to SRH colours — Sakib’s journey had taken the long route.
Modest background
His father farmed and fixed roof sheets as a casual labourer. Cash prizes from tennis-ball tournaments were a blessing the family counted on. In a video posted by KKR, his mother Subuktara Khatoon spoke of selling her jewellery to buy him bowling spikes. In a StarSports video, Sakib himself put it plainly: “If I bought shoes how could we eat.”
Singh had wanted Sakib to move to Patna for coaching, but the boy couldn’t afford to stay away from home. “I offered him free coaching but he declined,” Singh recalled.