India in England 2021: All You Need To Know About Arzan Nagwaswalla

The BCCI announced a strong 20-man Indian squad and four reserve players for the final of the World Test Championship against New Zealand in Southampton and the five-Test series against hosts England from June-September this year. The only real surprise was the unknown Arzan Rohinton Nagwaswalla who was named along with Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan and Abhimanyu Easwaran as one of the reserve players.

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Who is Arzan Nagwaswalla?

Arzan Nagwaswalla is a left-arm medium-fast bowler who is known for his ability to swing the red ball in first-class cricket. He made his first-class debut representing Gujarat against Baroda in a Ranji Trophy match in Vadodara in 2018. He picked up a solitary wicket in the match – of Yusuf Pathan but shot to fame when he returned with 5-78 in 23.3 overs against Mumbai – the most successful team in Ranji history – in their own bastion at the Wankhede Stadium just four weeks later.

Nagwaswalla returned with 41 wickets in 8 matches and was the leading wicket-taker for Gujarat in the next edition of the Ranji Trophy in 2019-20. He had a bowling average of 18.36 and strike rate of 39.4 and bagged three fifers in an innings and one ten-wicket haul in the tournament. The left-arm seamer played a significant role in helping Gujarat reach the semi-finals where they were beaten by Saurashtra. Nagwaswalla bagged seven wickets in the match at Rajkot.

Born in a Parsi community in a small village of Nargal in Umbergaon – a small town on the border of Maharashtra and Gujarat, the 23 year old has a run up similar to one of the all-time left-arm greats from India – Zaheer Khan. He became the first Parsi cricketer to play Ranji Trophy since Zubin Barucha represented Bombay between 1992 and 1995.

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Career Stats

Nagwaswalla has made an excellent start to his domestic career for Gujarat excelling in all the three formats. He has already picked 62 wickets in 16 first-class matches at an average of 22.53 and strike rate of 44.6 including four four wickets in an innings and as any fifers. What makes Nagwaswalla’s figures even more impressive is the fact that he usually is the first change bowler and very seldom takes the new ball.

His propensity to pick wickets stands out in List A and T20 cricket too. Nagwaswalla has bagged 39 wickets in 20 List A matches at an average of 21.76 and strike rate of 24.9 and 21 wickets in 15 T20 matches at an average of 16.38 and strike rate of 14. He is also a good restrictive bowler in T20 cricket as his economy rate of 6.97 indicates.

He was the second-highest wicket-taker of the 2021 Vijay Hazare Trophy and played the pivotal role with the ball in taking Gujarat to the semi-finals where they lost to Uttar Pradesh. Nagwaswalla claimed 19 wickets in 7 matches at a strike rate of 19.3 and economy rate of 4.32.

The left-armer was also the highest wicket-taker for Gujarat with 9 wickets in 5 matches in the 2021 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy with a very impressive strike rate of 10.3.

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• Arzan Nagwaswalla
• India in England 2021
• Ranji Trophy 2018-19
• vijay hazare trophy 2020-21
• World Test Championship