TimesofIndia.com in Ahmedabad: Seven years ago, around the same time of the year, Nadeem Dar was playing a club game in Chandigarh, where he was studying at the time. He received a call from Rasikh Salam Dar, his cousin and the one he had trained since the age of eight.“It was the darkest day of my life. I remember him saying, ‘Sab khatam ho gaya bhai jaan (It is all over now).’ Before I could even ask what exactly had happened, he broke down,” Nadeem told TimesofIndia.com. Rasikh was banned for two years in 2019 following a discrepancy involving the submission of a faulty birth certificate to the BCCI. The ban put him out of contention for the 2020 Under-19 World Cup and effectively closed the door on a comeback in Jammu and Kashmir cricket as well. After facing three rejections in Under-19 trials, Rasikh was picked ahead of the 2018 season when Irfan Pathan joined Jammu and Kashmir as a mentor.“In six months, he went on to play U-19, U-23, Ranji Trophy and in the IPL. Then one day we got to know about the ban,” he said.“It was not even his fault. I don’t want to talk about it because this is a very happy moment. He has played an extremely important role in helping RCB win the title. We remember it as a bad dream,” Nadeem added.Growing up in Khandipora, a village located in the Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, it was Nadeem who introduced Rasikh to cricket.The journey started with a tennis ball and this is where Rasikh learnt all his variations. But at 13, Nadeem took him to a local club, where he bowled with a leather ball for the first time. Within a few weeks, he had made a name for himself with his swing bowling.“There are a few turf wickets in Kashmir nowadays and they were a rarity a few years ago. So in tennis-ball cricket, you just need a cement wicket and even if the outfield is wet and soggy, it doesn’t matter. The back-of-the-hand slower one that everyone is praising now, he learnt it at the age of 14. His slower ones are very difficult to pick. They were difficult to pick even back then. In the last couple of seasons with Bhuvneshwar (Kumar), he has added the knuckleball to his armoury as well. He is a quick learner, without any doubt,” Nadeem said about his brother.After completing his two-year ban and moving base to Mumbai, Rasikh suffered a lower-back stress injury, which kept him out for even longer.“For four years, he didn’t play any competitive cricket. First the ban, then the injury, but he never lost hope. Never said that he wanted to quit. Giving up is just not in his blood,” Mir Murtaza, Rasikh’s childhood friend, told this website in Dharamsala ahead of Qualifier 1.“He is very introverted. From the outside, everyone thinks he is a soft-spoken guy, but he is very tough inside. We grew up together, played all our cricket together and even when he was facing rejections in his early days, he never backed down. Mentally, he is very tough. We would often pull his leg for not being active on social media like other cricketers or for living a simple, ordinary life, and he would just say one thing: ‘All these things can wait. I want to play for India, which is the ultimate dream,'” Murtaza shared.When RCB picked Rasikh for Rs 6 crore ahead of IPL 2025, a few eyebrows were raised. He had played only two games and had a solitary wicket to his name.“My only aim was to improve. I continued to work with Omkar Salvi sir. I watched Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar and tried to pick their brains as much as I could. I kept bowling because that’s the only thing I know and, by God’s grace, I got the desired results,” Rasikh told TimesofIndia.com in Ahmedabad.Dar finished with 19 wickets at an economy rate of 9.45. In the final against Gujarat Titans, he was RCB’s most successful bowler, finishing with figures of 3 for 27.“They (Bhuvneshwar and Hazlewood) made my job easy. Throughout the tournament, they gave us the perfect start and it made my job easier. All credit to them. I was just lucky to share the dressing room with them. I have learnt so much and I can’t wait to come back next year,” said Dar, oozing confidence.But captain Rajat Patidar showered praise on the 26-year-old for his contributions throughout the season.“The way Rasikh has come in and performed for the team, giving those breakthroughs, is important because you cannot win competitions or matches with just one or two bowlers,” Patidar told reporters on the eve of the final.
After the final, Patidar again lavished praise on Dar.“He is very confident about his skills, his slower ones, back-of-the-hand deliveries and especially his yorkers. I think he supported Bhuvi and Hazlewood well. Again, it’s clear that whenever I see him, he has clarity about his role and what he has to do. I always tell my bowlers that if you have something, if you have a plan, go and execute it.”For Rasikh, the goal is simply to continue the process, stay fit and keep doing the one thing he absolutely loves, marking his run-up and bowling for hours.“When I have the ball in my hands, that is my happiest place. It has been a long season. I can’t wait to go home and meet my parents. I want to dedicate this trophy to my father, Abdul Salaam, who always encouraged me to pursue my love for the game. Abbu ne kabhi ye nahi kaha ki kyu waqt barbaad kar rahe ho (My father never told me that I was wasting my time playing cricket). Like a pillar, he stood by me through thick and thin,” said an emotional Rasikh.India are set to play around 45 T20Is over the next two years and what the future holds for Rasikh remains unknown. But with his wicket-taking ability in the middle overs, he has certainly knocked on the doors of the national team. If he stays fit and continues doing what he loves, the blue jersey may not be far away for ‘Khandipora’s sher’ (lion), a moniker he has earned from his peers.