Rajasthan left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed is the only new face in the 16-member squad for the Asia Cup, which was picked in Mumbai on Saturday.
The 20-year-old has played only two first-class matches, but has more experience in List A and T20 cricket, having played 29 games across the two shorter formats. He was part of the India A limited-overs squad that toured England in June-July, and also played for India A in the recently concluded 50-over quadrangular series against South Africa A.
Rohit Sharma will lead the side while Shikhar Dhawan is the vice-captain.
Khaleel, who has taken 15 wickets in his last nine limited-overs matches for India A, had been on the selectors’ radar for a while.
Chief selector MSK Prasad said they had identified most of the squad for next year’s World Cup in England, apart from two or three slots, of which one was in the pace-bowling department.
“Two to three slots we are yet to finalise, so for those slots we are trying and we’ll look at these 24 matches (in the lead-up to the World Cup). You’ll come to know the slots more specifically as we go ahead … Among those, one of those seamers’ slot is open. We are looking at a left-arm option in Khaleel,” Prasad said at a media conference.
Khaleel also played in the IPL for Delhi DareDevils in 2016 and Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2017. While Delhi had bought him for just Rs 10 lakh at the auction, the Hyderabad franchise spent Rs 3.2 crore to get him in their ranks.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Home> Sports / by The Telegraph Bureau & Agencies / September 02nd, 2018
Every year the IPL throws up a heartwarming rags-to-riches story, reminding us of the human ability to triumph against adversity. One such story is of Syed Khaleel Ahmed.
Rajasthan’s left-arm speedster Syed Khaleel Ahmed was another one to get a big amount of Rs 3 crore by Sunrisers Hyderabad on the first day of Indian Premier League (IPL) auctions
Born in a small town in Rajasthan, Ahmed is a son of a compounder. He was part of U-19 team which reached the World Cup final in 2016. He has already spent two seasons with Delhi Daredevils.
Ahmed’s father used to hate cricket and even tried to dissuade him from playing, however, coach Imtiyaz Ali Khan, played a big part in convincing Khaleel’s father to let him continue playing.
“Back then cricket, for someone in Tonk, was just a threat to the children’s studies,” reported espncricinfo.com quoting Ahmed.
Speaking to SportsStarLive, Ahmed said that getting Rs. 3 crore is a big thing for him and he wants to shift his family to Jaipur and buy a house.
“That will help me to focus on my training better. All the academies are in Jaipur, so I will be able to train harder if I move to Jaipur,” Khaleel said.
Indian players dominated the bidding wars on the first day as KL Rahul and Manish Pandey laughed their way to the bank with multi-million dollar deals but England all-rounder Ben Stokes once again emerged the costliest buy in the IPL auctions, here today.
Stylish opener Rahul and middle-order batsman Pandey bagged deals worth Rs 11 crore (USD 1.73 million) from Kings XI Punjab and Sunrisers Hyderabad respectively.
The Karnataka players had a field day at the auctions with India discard Karun Nair also triggering a bidding war before Kings XI Punjab got him for Rs 5.60 crore (USD 880,000).
Kedar Jadhav, one of Mahendra Singh Dhoni ‘Go To Man’ during his last stint as India captain, also fetched a healthy price of Rs 7.80 crore for his all-round qualities of batting, round-arm off-spin and back-up wicket-keeping. He was snapped by the Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings.
Chennai, however, didn’t bid vigorously for Ravichandran Ashwin, who will now ply his trade for Kings XI Punjab at a salary of Rs 7.60 crore (USD 1.19 million).
Following is the complete list of sold players in the first day of Indian Premier League auctions
