When Auqib Nabi Dar runs in to bowl with the new ball for Delhi Capitals, alongside Mitchell Starc, it will mark one of the most unlikely journeys in recent Indian cricket. Picked up for a staggering ₹8.40 crore at the IPL mini-auction in Abu Dhabi — a 28-fold jump from his base price of ₹30 lakh — the “Dale Steyn of Kashmir” arrives at the biggest stage not as a prodigy, but as a hardened domestic warhorse.
Nabi’s rise has been forged through rejection and repetition. Over the years, he attended trials for at least five or six IPL franchises — Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals, Kolkata Knight Riders, Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad — without landing a contract. Even Delhi Capitals had shown interest last year, calling him for trials, but he couldn’t attend due to a state camp. When his name finally came up again at this year’s auction, multiple teams passed before DC entered a four-way bidding war and went all in.
“I’ve given trials for MI, RR, KKR, GT and SRH. Last year, DC called me but I couldn’t go. I want to play in the IPL — it will help me achieve my dream of starting an academy in Baramulla,” Nabi was quoted as saying by timesofindia.com.
That dream is deeply rooted in where he comes from. Raised in Baramulla, Nabi grew up in a household where academics were non-negotiable. His father, Gulam Nabi Dar, is an English teacher in a government school and envisioned a very different future for his son.
“I was good in studies, and my father’s dream was that I would become a doctor,” Nabi recalls.
“My father used to tell me that studies were important. He was really upset when I started playing cricket. After I got picked for U-19, he began supporting me. Before that, he was against it. Now he’s my biggest fan.”
Cricket, at first, was casual. Gully matches with a tennis ball, no proper grounds, no awareness of what professional fast bowling demanded.
“For me, it all started with gully cricket. We never had any proper ground. I didn’t even know that a fast bowler needed spikes,” he says.
That reality hit him hard at his first JKCA trial in Jammu.
“I was shell-shocked. I was wearing sports shoes worth ₹500,” Nabi remembers.
“Then I borrowed spikes from a senior player.”
He wasn’t selected. For two or three years, rejection followed. When he finally made the J&K U-19 side in 2016 — his last eligible year — it was for four-day cricket, not the one-day format. The Cooch Behar Trophy proved decisive.
That dream was sustained by relentless performances for Jammu and Kashmir. Nabi’s breakthrough came with a Vijay Hazare Trophy debut in 2018, though injury stalled his progress. His Ranji Trophy debut followed in 2020, and since then he has been J&K’s go-to fast bowler across formats.
In the 2024–25 Ranji Trophy, Nabi picked up 44 wickets in eight matches — the second-highest tally that season — playing a central role in Jammu and Kashmir’s run to the quarterfinals, where they were edged out by Kerala on a one-run first-innings lead. Earlier in the 2025–26 Ranji season, he claimed 29 wickets in nine innings, including three five-wicket hauls and a sensational 7 for 24 against Rajasthan, making him the only seamer among the top five wicket-takers in the first half of the tournament.
His white-ball returns have matched his red-ball consistency. At the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Nabi took 15 wickets in seven matches at an economy rate of 7.41. In his most recent outing against Madhya Pradesh, he struck a quick 32 off 21 balls before returning figures of three wickets to seal a 13-run win for J&K.
“Earlier, he had a good outswinger, but he wasn’t confident with the inswinger and other deliveries. I told him he had a brilliant wrist position. I said that if he worked on his skills, in two years he would be in the big leagues,” his coach told Hindustan Times. “There were no big changes in his action. We worked on small tactical and mental aspects. When I told him something and he applied it, it worked. That builds belief.”
That belief has been reinforced by recognition at the highest domestic levels. During the Duleep Trophy, Nabi picked up a five-for for North Zone, earning encouragement from fast-bowling partners Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana.
In the Ranji Trophy opener against Mumbai, selector Ajay Ratra, present at the Sher-e-Kashmir Stadium, personally appreciated Nabi after a five-wicket haul in the second innings.
As Delhi Capitals prepare to hand him the new ball at the Feroz Shah Kotla, the fast bowler once known for borrowing spikes arrives with the weight of numbers, resilience and years of rejection behind him — and with a journey that domestic cricket never forgot.
