Asia Cup 2018: Khaleel Ahmed - 5 things to know about India’s 222nd ODI player

Khaleel Ahmed was part of India’s U-19 World Cup team in 2015/16 where the team finished runners-up to West Indies. Ahmed played 6 matches and picked up three wickets in the tournament.K

Khaleel Ahmed was handed his maiden ODI cap by India’s stand-in-captain Rohit Sharma at Dubai ahed of the team’s tournament opener against Hong Kong. The left-arm paceman thus became the 222nd player to represent India in one-day internationals.

India’s Khaleel Ahmed being handed his ODI cap by Rohit Sharma in Dubai. (Twitter/BCCI)

Here is all you want to know about the 20-year old paceman:

1) Khaleel Ahmed was born in the Tonk district of Rajasthan on December 5, 1997. After representing Rajasthan in age group tournaments, he made his first-class debut October 2017 against Jammu and Kashmir. He made his domestic T20 debut in February 2017 and his List A debut in February 2018.

2) Khaleel Ahmed was part of India’s U-19 World Cup team in 2015/16 where the team finished runners-up to West Indies. Ahmed played 6 matches and picked up three wickets in the tournament.

3) He was picked up by Indian Premier League franchise Delhi Daredevils at his base price of Rs 10 lakh but hasn’t played a game for the team. He was mentored by his U-19 team coach Rahul Dravid.

4) He generated a lot of interest in the 2018 IPL auction and there was a three-way battle between Kings XI Punjab, Delhi Daredevils and Sunrisers Hyderabad to get the pacer on board. Eventually he was bought for a whopping Rs 3 crore by Sunrisers Hyderabad and went on to play just one match for them.

5) He was selected for the India A team’s tour of England earlier this year and picked up 6 wickets in three matches. He also picked up 10 wickets in 6 list A matches in the 2017-18 Vijay Hazare trophy.