Shahbaz Nadeem (born 12 August 1989)[1] is an Indian former international cricketer who played as a slow left-arm orthodox bowler. He made his first-class cricket debut in December 2004.[2] He played for Bihar U-14, Indian U-19s and Jharkhand.[3] In March 2024, he announced his retirement from Indian international cricket.[4][5]
In September 2018, he set a new record for the best bowling figures in a List A cricket match by taking eight wickets for 10 runs against Rajasthan whilst playing for Jharkhand.
He was born in Bokaro Steel City, Jharkhand. He completed his schooling from St. Xavier's, Bokaro, De Nobili School, Dhanbad and Delhi Public School, Kolkata.
Domestic career
Even before he made his first-class debut, Nadeem was seen as the next big left-arm slow bowler. He has a classical, flowing lefty's action, is naturally inclined to bowl round the wicket to right-hand batsmen, and has the boldness to experiment with varying degrees of loop. In addition, he is an athletic fielder and a fixture at point for his state and the East Zone side. He came into the reckoning with a nine-wicket haul against Sikkim in an Under-15 game in 2002. His first-class debut earlier this season was impressive, but he found himself under the hammer against Australia in the Under-19 one-dayers, and played only one match in the Under-19 World Cup.
In the 2012 IPL season Nadeem made a breakthrough in the Delhi Daredevils team with impressive performances. He was also one of the seven players nominated for IPL Rising Star of the year award.
He finished consecutive years – The 2015–16 Ranji Trophy and 2016–17 Ranji Trophy seasons with the most wickets in the competition, with a total of 51 and 56 dismissals respectively.[6] He was also the leading wicket-taker for Jharkhand in the 2017–18 Ranji Trophy, with 18 dismissals in four matches.[7]
In September 2018, in the 2018–19 Vijay Hazare Trophy fixture between Rajasthan and Jharkhand, Nadeem set a new List A cricket record, taking eight wickets for ten runs from 10 overs.[10][11] He also took hatrick wickets while achieving that feat. He was the leading wicket-taker in the tournament, with twenty-four dismissals in nine matches.[12]
In January 2021, he was named as one of five standby players in India's Test squad for their series against England.[20] Owing to a knee injury to Axar Patel, Nadeem was added to the squad and also selected in the playing XI for the first Test.[21]