Wishes poured in as Jharkhand's veteran left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem finally made his debut for India in Ranchi with the third Test against South Africa on Saturday (October 19).
The 30-year-old had been brought in as cover after wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav complaint of shoulder pain. And was also picked in the final XI as the Indian team management judged the pitch right, thinking it would take alarming turn as the game progresses, and left out Ishant Sharma from the five-man bowling attack that played in the second Test in Pune.
Long held back in the pecking order with the mighty Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja around, Nadeem had to work really hard for this day, picking truckload of wickets for Jharkhand and India A all over the world.
He is only the second bowler ever to have taken 50 wickets in two successive seasons of Ranji Trophy.
Nadeem aggregates 424 wickets in 110 first-class games at an average of 28.4 and strike-rate of 63.6 with 19 five-wicket hauls so far.
He deserves to play Test cricket, which is exactly the sentiment many echoed while wishing well on the biggest day of his life.
Here are some the tweets:
