19-year-old leg-spinner Tanveer Sangha is over the moon after he earned his maiden call up to the Australia squad for the New Zealand tour, as he never expected to make it to the Australian men's national cricket team at such a young age.
Tanveer, the son of Punjabi immigrant farmer, has recently become only the second Indian origin cricketer after Gurinder Sandhu to make it to the Australian cricket team after being included in the 18-man squad for the upcoming tour of New Zealand in February 2021.
In the past, Indian-origin cricketers like Jason Sangha, Arjun Nair, and Param Uppal have played in Australia but at the domestic or U-19 levels but no one could yet make it to the highest level. Notably, there are three players whose parents were born in India or had an India connect had been part of the Australian men's team and they are – Bransby Cooper (1877), Rex Sellers (1964), and Stuart Clark (2006).
Well, Tanveer earned the maiden call-up to the Australian squad for the upcoming five-match T20I series in New Zealand on the back of his stunning performance in the ongoing Big Bash League (BBL) 10 – where he is currently the third-highest wicket-taker with 21 scalps in 13 matches for Sydney Thunder.
Tanveer told Times of India on Thursday: “I was over the moon when I got the call. It took a while for it to sink in… I did not expect to be selected at such a young age.”
Meanwhile, the youngster’s parents had moved to Sydney, Australia on a student visa from Jalandhar in 1997. His father Joga Singh Sangha, who was a farmer in Punjab, worked on a farm and then started driving a taxi and still does while his mother Upneet is an accountant.
After his son’s selection to the Australia team, Mr. Joga recalled: “Tanveer is a natural sportsperson. He played volleyball, rugby, and kabaddi growing up. When Tanveer was 10, he showed interest in cricket. By the time he was 12, I got him to play in local adult cricket teams.”
While Tanveer remembered, “The school I attended, East Hills Boys High School, was the same that Steve and Mark Waugh had gone to. Olympic gold medallist swimmer Ian Thorpe, too. It gave me access to a good cricket club.”
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His father also revealed that Tanveer was a very good batsman and even batted five times in the U-19 World Cup, but he veered him towards spin at the age of 13 to avoid injury. He was the highest wicket-taker for Australia in the U-19 World Cup, with 15 wickets in six matches.
Joga added, “He is a very good batsman. He batted five times in the U-19 World Cup and had a strike rate of 85.26. To avoid a shoulder injury, I suggested he take up spin bowling instead of pace bowling.”
Tanveer was spotted by Australian-Pakistani leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed in Melbourne in 2018 and since then he has been the youngster’s mentor.
The young leg-spinner signed off by saying, “This was during the second or third game of the U-16 series against Pakistan. Since that day, he has been my mentor.”
Australia squad: Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Kane Richardson, Daniel Sams, Tanveer Sangha, D'Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa.
(With Times of India Inputs)
