Twitter Reacts As Uncapped Khaleel Ahmed Receives Maiden Call For Asia Cup

Khaleel Ahmed, on Saturday (September 1),  received his maiden India call-up for the upcoming Asia Cup. The call has further extended his meteoric rise in the game. The 20-year-old from Rajasthan’s Tonk has played 17 List A matches, taking 28 wickets at an economy rate of 4.74.

However, his exciting left-arm pacer helped him break into the national team so early in the career. Khaleel possesses the ability to hustle the batsmen and can well India’s long search for a good left-arm pacer. The Indian team-management has been searching a left-arm quick for quite some time now to add variety to an otherwise very strong pace department. Rahul Dravid has been mentoring him since the 2016 U-19 World Cup.

Khaleel first caught the eyeballs when he won a place in Sunrisers Hyderabad’s squad in IPL 2018. He was then fast-tracked into the India A squads for a tour of England in June-July and the recently concluded A team quadrangular series. In his last nine outings for India A, he has taken at least a wicket in every outing, thus picking up 15 scalps.

He made his first-class debut last year but had a forgettable season. He only picked up two wickets in his two Ranji Trophy games in 2017-18, at an average of 90.00. However, he impressed in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament, picking up 17 wickets at 15.52. He conceded less than seven runs per over.

Rajasthan finished the T20 tournament as runners-up. In the final against Delhi, Khaleel dismissed Rishabh Pant and half-centurion Unmukt Chand to finish with figures of 4-0-23-2.

The call from the national team is a huge achievement for a player who grew up playing tennis-ball cricket in Tonk.

Not surprisingly, his call has caused quite a stir on social media. Here are some reactions from the fans:

Congratulations @imK_Ahmed on your maiden India call-up. Big opportunity, make it count. #AsiaCup

— Yusuf Pathan (@iamyusufpathan) September 1, 2018

Very happy to see Manish Pandey and Ambati Rayudu back in the team. Been hearing good things about Khaleel Ahmed. Being left handed has helped him. Bit hard maybe on Kaul.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) September 1, 2018

#Rajasthan’s own #KhaleelAhmed selected in the #IndianCricketTeam for #AsiaCup2018. Do us proud! #RisingRajasthan
@imK_Ahmed

— Vasundhara Raje (@VasundharaBJP) September 1, 2018

Khaleel Ahmed (@imK_Ahmed) our boy Rajasthani boy selected in team ??

He played 17 List A matches so far and bagged 28 wickets. #AsiaCup2018

— Akhil Gupta ? (@Guptastats92) September 1, 2018

Now Khaleel Ahmed is in Indian team for Asia cup… Hopefully he'll be the left hand pacer India is desperately looking for https://t.co/U5cW6ftuck

— Abhishek yadav (@abhyToabhi) September 1, 2018

https://twitter.com/ankurjainiam/status/1035799278940311552

Happy for young Khaleel Ahmed. Maybe, another quality wrist-spinner in the squad would've helped but yeah.

— KASHISH (@crickashish217) September 1, 2018

Playing 11 में मोका मिले #khaleelahmed ko

— Anubhav ?? (@anubhaviladka) September 1, 2018

https://twitter.com/freakomonk/status/1035801472317906944

Knew that Khaleel Ahmed will be picked for Asia Cup.

— Niharika Raina (@niharika_raina) September 1, 2018