Young J&K cricketer Qamraan selected for India U-19
Jammu and Kashmir Under-19 cricketer, Qamraan Iqbal has been named in India B team for the Quadrangular U-19 series which begins from September 12 at Lucknow.
Four teams viz India 'A', India 'B', Afghanistan and Nepal will clash in the series. Pavan Shah will lead India A side while Vedant Murker will captain India B.
Qamraan is an aggressive right-handed opener who is known for playing shots all around the park. He averaged about 60 in the zonal matches before getting picked for the India B team.
Qamraan was part of NCA camp where top 30 cricketers of the country were being trained. His entry to the side is largely due to his consistent performances at the Under-19 level,
"Firstly, I want to thank Almighty then my family. I am feeling joyful as this is the best moment of my cricketing career, so far," Qamraan told SportsKeeda soon after he received the national selection call.
Qamraan credits his success to his father, "He has always motivated me and I owe this achievement to him," He said
Qamraan who hails from Srinagar captained J&K U-19 team previous season and was the highest run-getter from his side.
He has been attending ZCA and NCA camps continuously from past three years,"I attended multiple camps from past few years and thankfully have done well enough in the majority of the matches, I played," He further said.
Qamraan, 17 is confident of good performances in the series, "I will give my best and would try to perform well. It would surely be a dream series for me and I am confident of doing well," He claimed.
He aims to play for team India one day, "Like every cricketer, I too want to play for the national team in future. This is though just a beginning for me and I would try to avail this opportunity to make it bigger," Qamraan revealed while signing off.
With this stint, Qamraan became the third cricketer from J&K to found himself in the National Under-19 team.
The only international cricketer from J&K, Parvez Rasool congratulated the youngster for the achievement and called it a proud moment for the whole state,
"Many congratulations to Qamraan for the selection. He is a talented player and will hopefully do well in the series. It is a proud moment for whole Jammu and Kashmir and I wish him all the luck for future endeavors," Parvez who is part of India Red team in the Duleep Trophy told us over the phone.
The squads for the series are as under: India U19 A: Pavan Shah (Captain), Devdutt Padikkal, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat (wicket-keeper), Prab Simran Singh (wicket-keeper), Yash Rathod, Ayush Badoni, Nehal Wadhera, Siddharth Desai, Harsh Tyagi, Ajay Dev Goud, Yatin Mangwani, Mohit Jangra, Sameer Choudhary, Rajesh Mohanty
India U19 B: Vedant Murkar (Captain & wicket-keeper), Thakur Tilak Verma, Qamran Iqbal, Vamsi Krishna, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, Rishab Chouhan, Siddhant Rana, Sayan Kumar Biswas (wicket-keeper), Shubhang Hegde, Rizvi Sameer, Pankaj Yadav, Akash Singh, Ashok Sandhu, Aayush Singh, Nitish Reddy, Sabir Khan, Sahil Raj, Rajvardhan Hangargekar