Sakib Hussain is a little embarrassed when talking about his six pairs of cricket shoes.It was his Sunrisers Hyderabad team-mate, India wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan, who is from Bihar, like Hussain, who got him the footwear he wore in games this season – half a dozen pairs of Adidas Adipowers.
“There was a time I did not have any shoes,” Sakib says. “I couldn’t even think about owning a pair of shoes that expensive. How could I wear shoes that cost Rs 12,000-15,000 [about US$125-155]?”
Sakib, who started focusing on cricket seriously in his late teens, used to play on the tennis-ball circuit in and around his home town, Gopalganj. He was thin and loose-limbed, but wiry and athletic enough to make the ball talk. Back then he wanted to join the Indian army. He and his older brother Akib would wake up before dawn to run and train at a ground nearby. Sakib could make the tennis ball speak. “We would get about Rs 300 [$3] per match, and if we travelled 500km or more, we would get 1000-1200 [$10.5].”
When Sakib was about 16, his father, Ali Ahmed, a farmer, developed knee problems, which meant he couldn’t do much physical work. Sakib and his brother tended to the farm while playing tennis-ball cricket on the side.
The issue of footwear came up for him then too. “The shoes bought off the roadside for Rs 200-300 wore out soon,” Sakib says. “The sole would tear. Without spikes, my foot kept slipping and my ankles got sprained many times.
“Mummy, joota chahiye,” he said to his mother one day. “Bina joote ke, bowling nahin ho payega hum se.”
She told Sakib not to worry, and went on to sell jewellery she got from her parents when she was married. She gave him money with which to buy new shoes. “That is how my journey started,” he says.
Sakib says he never had any hopes of playing top-level cricket. But his ego was stirred when he heard people around him say he was right not to have any. “Tumhari tarah lakhon player hain, tum kuch bhi kar lo tum nahin kehl paayega.” [There are hundreds of thousands like you. Whatever you do, you won’t be able to play (high-level cricket).]
That’s my boy: Sakib’s mother, Subuktara Khatoon, watches her son from the stands•BCCI
Sakib resolved to disprove the naysayers with deeds. “I did not respond to anybody with words but I told myself I will do it through my work. That is what I told myself – I’ll do it myself.”
He was lucky that his talent was spotted by the local district cricket association, who backed him. His coach, Robin Singh, a former Bihar player, was another source of support. With the assurance that his needs would be looked after, Sakib was relatively free to focus on his training and development.
He made it to the IPL via good performances in the Bihar Cricket League and age-group tournaments. Kolkata Knight Riders picked him for the 2024 IPL but he didn’t play and was eventually released. SRH bought him up at the last auction as part of their plan to invest in uncapped young fast bowlers; Sakib and Vidarbha fast bowler Praful Hinge were among those given the opportunity to develop and get exposure.Sakib speaks about his first encounter with Varun Aaron, Sunrisers’ bowling coach, another key player in his cricket journey, earlier this year at the PJ Hindu Gymkhana in Mumbai, at a one-in-one session.
Like any young tearaway fast bowler, he wanted to impress, letting the ball fly off a hard length. He now says he can’t believe how big a gap there is between how he bowled that day and where he is now. “I just sprayed the ball in four different directions, so to say.
Strike two: Shivam Dube is out to Sakib for the second time this season•Mahesh Kumar/Associated Press
“I was feeling bad, but Varun bhaiyya, who to me is more than a coach and more like an older brother, said I shouldn’t worry and it will be fine.” Aaron saw quite a bit of work was necessary on Sakib’s biomechanics and his run-up, but he did not want to get into making any tweaks right away. Instead, he wanted Sakib to focus on hitting a length, and on perfecting the top-of-off-stump line that even the most experienced can struggle with at times.
“He said to just focus on what he is saying, so I trusted him and he trusted me. And to compare that to where I am today – because of that, I will always remember that first day. He tells me, ‘Woh pehla din yaad rakhna.’
Aaron walked up to Sakib the day before his IPL debut, against Rajasthan Royals this April, put his arm around him, and asked him to play freely. “He said, ‘Look, do what you have been doing, don’t try anything [extra],'” Sakib says. “‘Don’t take any tension. If good things happen, it is okay, and even if bad things happen, it is okay.’ That gave me a lot of confidence – that there is someone to look after me. That is a factor that has helped me progress.”
Sakib stuck to his plans and picked up four wickets, as did Hinge, comfortably beating RR. Perhaps the pick of Sakib’s wickets was the one of South Africa batter Donovan Ferreira, who failed to read the bowler’s hand and plan, and was bowled by a cutter. The ability to vary his speeds has been one of Sakib’s most significant strengths, from a 140kph delivery, dropping down to 105 the next ball.
Sakib got the better of Chennai Super Kings batter Shivam Dube in his second game, and again in the return match. Five days after his four-wicket haul, playing in Hyderabad, bowling the 17th over, when CSK were 154 chasing 195, Sakib sent down a reverse-swinging yorker that crashed into the stumps after Dube exposed them to hit to the off side. That was the only wicket Sakib took in his four overs, which went for 32 runs, but it was a vital breakthrough; CSK’s chances had hinged on Dube. While Sakib gave away 13 runs in his first over, during the powerplay, he pulled it back with only 19 conceded in his other three.A month later, playing in Chennai, bowling the penultimate over of the first innings, Sakib tested Dube again with cutters and sharp lines before blindsiding him with a delivery that pitched on leg, stayed low, and beat the bat swing to hit middle stump.
Sakib with Varun Aaron, SRH’s bowling coach, who has been instrumental in his development•Sunrisers Hyderabad
“I felt he was finding it a bit difficult, not understanding my variations clearly,” Sakib says. “He seemed irritated with my deliveries. Probably he thought since I was bowling fast, I might bowl a bouncer but I bowled in front [in Hyderabad], the yorker, and got him bowled.”
Of the 228 deliveries Sakib sent down in the league phase of the tournament, nearly half – 104 – were slower deliveries. Incredibly, he learned to bowl the variation only after he went home following the 2024 IPL.
“I used to bowl a halka-phulka [half-baked] slower ball in 2024. But when I went home I had a chat with my friend from tennis cricket days, Sachin Kumar.” Kumar, another influence early in Sakib’s career, has long been a sounding board for him on most things bowling. “He said, we need you to develop the slower ball. He told me I should learn to bowl the slower ball, like the one DJ Bravo used to deliver – the dipping slower ones. Sachin taught me that ball and we worked on it for 10-12 days, after which I continued to develop it.”
Sakib started out practising the slower delivery with the tennis ball and eventually moved to using the cricket ball. He soon started to get the right feel in terms of grip, and he developed the confidence to try the slower ball in matches. A key element of the impact of a new delivery is how accurate the bowler is in landing it where he wants. On that point, Sakib credits Aaron. “My friend [Kumar] taught me, but the fact about which length to bowl and when and such stuff was taught by Varun bhaiyya.”
Four slow balls, followed by… a fifth. Sakib says Virat Kohli’s wicket is his pick of his slower-ball wickets this season•BCCI
Sitting alongside Aaron, watching the RCB bowlers in the first innings as Sunrisers’ batters piled up 255, Sakib got a feel for the kind of pitch it was. “We saw the ball was gripping. I noticed that when Rasikh Salam bowled in the powerplay. I planned it together with Varun bhaiyya and our video analyst.” When his turn to bowl came, in the sixth over, Sakib used the slower ball for all six deliveries, getting Kohli with the fifth and allowing the batters no pace to work with.
Sunrisers captain Pat Cummins was a vital part of that particular plan. “He reads things well on the ground, compared to me,” Sakib says. “He plans usually, what to bowl on which wicket. He had already bowled two overs [in the powerplay] and he asked me to go slow fully. So I just did what he says. But the Kohli wicket I will always remember.”
“You learn from experiences,” he says. “Varun bhaiyya said, ‘Tum ko kuch boley hum? Toh hum boley, nahi bhaiyya. Woh boley, hum bolenge toh kuch farak padega. Aaram se bindaas raho.” [Aaron said, did I say anything to you (about being expensive)? I said, no. He said, if I say it, that’s when it will mean something. Don’t worry.]
Roger that, skip: Sakib says language has not been a problem communicating with his captain, Pat Cummins•BCCI
There is a video clip Sakib says he watches every night before switching off. It is of an interview a local news channel in Bihar recorded with his parents when he was picked by KKR in the 2024 IPL auction. In it, his father, sitting on a wooden cot, is shedding happy tears. His mother, Subuktara Khatoon, talks about how proud she is that Sakib’s hard work from a young age has paid off. “Woh cheez hum ko yaad dila ta hain ki tum kahan se aaye ho.” [That reminds me where I have come from.]
Gopalganj is where two former chief ministers of Bihar, Abdul Ghafoor and Lalu Prasad Yadav, hail from. As does Bollywood actor Pankaj Tripathi. India and Bengal fast bowler Mukesh Kumar is from there too. Sakib produces his shy grin once again when I say name will now be added to the list of famous people to have come from Gopalganj.
For now, he has no material goals except to keep his parents secure and happy. “Whatever I will earn is for my parents, who struggled for me,” he says. “Personally, I just have to play cricket.
“The one thing I wanted when I came to IPL was to have the self-respect. That is an important thing. Secondly, I want to help the team win the IPL.”
Nagraj Gollapudi is news editor at ESPNcricinfo
