Sunrisers Hyderabad handed a debut to leg spinner Zeeshan Ansari in their third match of IPL 2025 on Sunday (March 30). Read more here.
SRH signed Ansari for INR 40 lakh at the player auction in November, a touch more than his base price of INR 30 lakh. The Lucknow-born leggie had made his professional debut at the age of 16 in October 2017, playing for Uttar Pradesh in their first Ranji Trophy fixture of the 2017/18 season against Railways.
Ansari had impressed with 3-78 and 3-47 in that match, playing with the likes of Suresh Raina, Rinku Singh, Praveen Kumar and Kartik Tyagi. However, Ansari did not play again for UP that season.
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Ansari’s uncharacteristically early debut had come on the back of sustained impressive performances for the UP U19s, in both limited-overs and long-form cricket. Ansari also played at the U19 zonal level, and in the Challenger Trophy before representing India U19 in 2015.
A standout performance had come against Afghanistan in a 50-over game in November 2015, where he played alongside Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan, Sarfaraz Khan and Shivam Mavi, and took 5-37 in eight overs including the wicket of Rashid Khan.
He played his next first-class game a year after his debut, and that was one of just two first-class matches he played in 2018/19. He went wicketless in his first (and thus far, only) T20 against Uttarakhand in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Ansari went on to play two first-class matches in 2019/20. Despite taking six wickets against Saurashtra in one of those games, he has not played for Uttar Pradesh in any format since. It means that in over seven years since his debut, he has played just six professional matches.
However, the inaugural edition of the Uttar Pradesh T20 league of last August came as a blessing for Ansari. Representing the Meerut Mavericks, he played a starring role with 24 wickets in 12 games, taking home the Purple Cap at the end of the season and leading his side to the title. He thrice took three wickets in an innings, and had one five-wicket haul while conceding at just 7.6 runs per over.
Zeeshan Ansari - UPT20 2024
| Matches | Wickets | Average | Economy Rate | Strike Rate | Best Figures |
| 12 | 24 | 13.25 | 7.60 | 10.45 | 5-26 |
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