Excelsior Sports Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Jan 28: Legendary Virender Sehwag and Preity Zinta’s Kings XI Punjab today picked up for this IPL edition, a Kashmiri hard-hitting batting sensation, Manzoor Dar to play for their team.
Nicknamed ‘Pandav’ after the Mahabharata’s Bhim for his immense strength and size, Manzoor became the last but one player to get in the Indian Premier League (IPL)-2018 auction list. He was bought by Kings XI Punjab for the base price of Rs 20 lakh today.
Known for his power hitting and having won couple of matches in the last and the recent Mushtaq Ali T20 North Zone Tournament for Jammu and Kashmir, Pandav was the penultimate player to get on auction list in 2-day bidding war for players between IPL franchisees.
He was bought by KXIP for Rs 20 lakh and will be teaming up with big man Chris Gayle, who was also picked at the fag end of the auction.
However, other J&K cricketers were given a miss. Parvez Rasool and Umar Nazir didn’t fetch any bids.
Manzoor Pan-dav, a young lad from north Kashmir’s Bandi-pora district, picked up the bat at a tender age of 10 years. Since then his bat has been doing the talking. There is hardly any cricketing ground in Kashmir where this swashbuckling batsman has not entertained the spectators, even of the opposite teams.
Born on November 1, 1993 in Suganpora village of Sumbal in Bandipora district, Manzoor wishes to make it to the international cricket like any other player. His father is a labourer. And, Manzoor himself, works as a labourer to make both ends meet.
“I am working very hard to shine with my bat in the field. I work as a labourer to help my family,” he told Excelsior.
His cricket journey so far has been full with achievements at different levels.”I don’t remember the exact number of runs that I have scored. But I am sure that I have smashed more than 40 centuries till now. My career’s highest score is 211 which I hit at Narbal ground,” he recalls.
Manzoor Pandav tweeted after he was picked by Kings-XI: “Thank you to the @lionsdenkxip for providing me opportunities to show the world What I am. I’m extremely excited to Join the #PunjabiBoys Cant wait #IPL2018.”
Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah also congratulated Dar. “Congratulations & all the best for the tournament. Look forward to watching you play”, tweeted Omar.
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