For a 20-year-old to miss out on trials for an IPL team can be quite painful. Uttar Pradesh’s Sameer Rizvi had felt the disappointment as he had to play for his state side.
But Rizvi didn’t give up and used his stint with the state side to continue trying. He got his reward on Tuesday when the Chennai Super Kings fetched him for Rs 8.4 crore.
Rizvi became the most expensive uncapped player in the IPL 2024 auction (also the second-most expensive among Indian cricketers after Harshal Patel, who went to Punjab Kings for Rs 11.75 crore). He was followed by Tamil Nadu’s Shahrukh Khan (Gujarat Titans for Rs 7.4 crore), 19-year-old keeper-batter Kumar Kushagra of Jharkhand (snapped up for Rs 7.2 crore by Delhi Capitals), his statemate 21-year-old Robin Minz (Rs 3.6 crore to Titans), who’s also a keeper, and Shubham Dubey (taken by Rajasthan Royals for Rs
5.8 crore).
Out of these players, the Meerut-born Rizvi is the one who stands out, especially if one looks at the elevation in terms of his price. From a base price of Rs 20 lakh, he waltzed to Rs 8.4 crore to find a place in the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led squad.
Rizvi’s father (Haseen Rizvi) would get angry with him as he used to focus more on cricket than on studies when he first started playing the game back in 2009. Perseverance, however, paid off for the youngster, who has also learnt a little bit about hitting sixes from Rinku Singh.
“His strength is to hit spinners and he’s a clean hitter. He’s not just a finisher, but can also grind the opposition attack to fit into any kind of roles,” Sunil Joshi, current coach of Uttar Pradesh, told The Telegraph.
Scoring 455 runs for Kanpur Superstars in the UP T20 League back in August-September earned him opportunities to trial for several franchises. But he had to skip them and represent the Uttar Pradesh U-23 side for the BCCI U-23 one-dayers.
Putting his heart and soul there, Rizvi led Uttar Pradesh U-23 to the title, hitting 454 runs from seven matches.
“It’s always better for a young cricketer to play competitive cricket instead of appearing for trials, which happen every now and then. I told him to focus on the U-23 meet. He did so and you can see the result today,” Joshi, also a former India left-arm spinner and national selector, said.
For the senior Uttar Pradesh side, Rizvi has impressive numbers in T20 cricket, averaging 49.16 in 11 games so far with two half-centuries and a strike rate of 134.70. He has also featured in 11 List A and two first-class matches.
