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The BCCI recently, announced India’s Test and ODI squads for the upcoming Afghanistan series in June. Jammu & Kashmir pacer Auqib Nabi never really looked like he was in contention for selection, even if a few reports kept saying injury-prone Gurnoor Brar might still squeeze into the squad. At first those claims felt a bit doubtful, but honestly that is how it played out. What’s more, one of the most dependable domestic pacers across the last two or three Ranji Trophy seasons did not make the cut, and a clear reason for that decision hasn’t really been shared.  

This, then brings back a big question do Ranji Trophy performances actually matter in team selection, or are selectors maybe missing players who unmistakably stand out once you look closely at what they did and the numbers they put up. It’s a debate that just keeps going, day after day, but it’s also an important one if Indian cricket wants to plan smarter for what comes next.\

The 29-year-old fast bowler isn’t the type who leans just on straight raw pace. More like, he works on precision discipline and that knack to swing the ball both ways, not only one direction. Since his first-class debut, Nabi has already played 41 matches and bagged 156 wickets. What’s stand out is that 104 of those wickets showed up over only the last two seasons, so yeah that’s pretty wild.

This year’s Ranji Trophy, he sort of guided Jammu & Kashmir to their maiden title and then, grabbed a sensational 60 wickets at an average of 12.56. Only two other pacers have managed numbers like this in one season, Dodda Ganesh with 62 wickets in 1998-99, and Jaydev Unadkat with 67 wickets in 2019-20. Even last season Nabi looked sharp by taking 44 wickets in just eight matches, which was the second-highest tally in the whole tournament.

What Nabi has done in first-class cricket is frankly extraordinary. On batting friendly Indian surfaces, he has kept outdoing most other pacers in the whole competition, like over and over again. In the 2024-25 season, when Nabi grabbed 44 wickets, the next best fast bowler was Manisankar Murasingh from Tripura, with 35 wickets across six matches. 

If you zoom out a bit and think about the bigger domestic outfits, Shardul Thakur still ended up with 35 wickets in nine matches for Mumbai. But this season, after Nabi’s near unbelievable 60 wicket run , the next pacer listed was Mohammed Shami, who had 37 wickets in seven games. Honestly, it just shows how strong Nabi has been in recent years, with that sort of relentless edge.

The selection committee, led by Ajit Agarkar, decided to support the 6’5” tall Gurnoor Brar. Brar definitely has upside, and he could turn into a proper speed bowler, but then again how do his numbers look against Nabi? If you look at the stats, Brar has played 18 first class matches and grabbed 52 wickets. Those figures are not bad at all, yet the lack of steady, regular game time is still a small concern. Over the past three and a half to four years, Brar has managed only one full domestic season, where he turned up in seven matches for Punjab and picked up 27 wickets. The remaining outings have arrived mostly as quick intervals, short bursts, not sustained spells.

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In fact, during the latest season Brar played just two matches and managed only four wickets . That sort of implies that long-term consistency maybe was not such a big deal in the selection process, or at least it did not weigh much.

All of this gives this kind of impression that Ranji Trophy performances are no longer getting the attention selectors once used to give . Nabi is now at the peak point of his career, and if he is handed the chance, he could support Indian cricket effectively for the next few years. Still, being the top wicket taker in domestic cricket seems to hold almost no value at all. What makes the thing even more surprising is that he has never been invited into an India A squad either, not once. India A toured against England Lions, Australia A, and South Africa A, but Nabi stayed totally absent from those sides.