Shahbaz Ahmed

Shahbaz Ahmed is a left-arm orthodox spinner who is also very competent with the bat. Hailing from Mewat, the southpaw moved to Kolkata as he didn’t receive any opportunity in his home state. After the move, he developed his bowling which eventually went on to become his main strength.

Shahbaz was noticed by former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly in 2016 who was then the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB). He was quick to make the move to the senior team. Shahbaz made his domestic debut for Bengal in all three formats in the 2018-19 season. The left-handed all-rounder was an integral member of the Bengal team in the 2019-20 season when his team ended up as the runners-up of the Ranji Trophy. Shahbaz was Bengal’s leading wicket-taker of the season picking 35 wickets at an average of 16.80. He also scored some valuable runs by notching up four FC half-centuries.

A spinning all-rounder with excellent fielding skills, Shahbaz was bought by Royal Challengers Bengaluru for INR 20 lakh ahead of IPL 2020. He was promoted in the batting order on multiple occasions and was part of the RCB franchise for four seasons as they rebought him for INR 2.4 crore during the 2022 IPL auction. Ahead of the 2024 IPL, RCB and Sunrisers Hyderabad traded him and Mayank Dagar. Shahbaz helped SRH reach the final that season as he scored 18 and backed it up with three important wickets in Qualifier 2.