Sakib Hussain admits he still feels a touch awkward talking about the six pairs of cricket shoes he keeps for match days. The reason, he says, is simple: he never imagined he would reach a stage where such expensive footwear would be routine.
His Sunrisers Hyderabad team-mate and fellow wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan, who hails from Bihar, was the one who sorted him out this season. Kishan, impressed by what Sakib was missing earlier in his journey, got him half a dozen Adidas Adipowers to wear in games.
“There was a time I did not have any shoes,” Sakib says. “I couldn’t even think about owning a pair that costly. How could I wear shoes that cost Rs 12,000 to 15,000?”
Sakib, who took cricket seriously only in his late teens, spent his earlier years on the tennis-ball circuit around his hometown, Gopalganj. He was lean and long-limbed, but athletic enough to make every throw and delivery count. Back then, he even considered joining the Indian Army, and he and his older brother Akib used to wake up before dawn to run and train at a nearby ground.
On the money side, the matches were humble but motivating. “We would get about Rs 300 per match,” Sakib recalls. “And if we travelled 500km or more, we would get Rs 1,000 to 1,200.”
Everything shifted when Sakib was around 16. His father, Ali Ahmed, a farmer, developed knee problems that limited his ability to do physical work. That meant Sakib and Akib had to help on the farm, while still keeping tennis-ball cricket alive whenever they could.
Footwear became an issue again during that period. “The shoes we bought off the roadside for Rs 200 to 300 would wear out quickly,” Sakib says. “The sole would tear. Without proper spikes, my foot kept slipping and my ankles would get sprained again and again.”
One day, he decided to be direct with his mother. “Mummy, joota chahiye,” he told her. “Bina joote ke, bowling nahin ho payega hum se.”
She reassured him and then did something practical. She sold jewellery that her parents had given her when she was married, and used the money to help Sakib buy better shoes. “That is how my journey started,” he says.
Sakib insists he never had big fantasies about playing at the top level. Yet his confidence was challenged in a different way when people around him began to mock his chances. “Tumhari tarah lakhon player hain, tum kuch bhi kar lo tum nahin kehl paayega.” he recalls. “Hundreds of thousands like you exist. Whatever you do, you won’t be able to play high-level cricket.”
He chose to answer doubt with work rather than words. “I did not respond to anyone with arguments,” Sakib says. “I just told myself I will do it through my efforts. That is what I kept repeating to myself—I will do it myself.”
A turning point came when local cricket officials spotted his talent and backed him. His coach, Robin Singh, a former Bihar player, also provided steady support. With the assurance that his needs would be looked after, Sakib was able to focus more freely on training and development.
His rise into the IPL followed strong performances in the Bihar Cricket League and age-group events. Kolkata Knight Riders selected him for the 2024 IPL, but he did not get to play and was later released. Sunrisers Hyderabad then bought him at the last auction as part of their plan to invest in uncapped young fast bowlers. Sakib and Vidarbha quick Praful Hinge were among the players handed the chance to grow and gain exposure.
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Sakib later looked back at his early connection with Varun Aaron, Sunrisers’ bowling coach, describing their first proper conversation earlier this year at the PJ Hindu Gymkhana in Mumbai, during a one-on-one session.
Like most young fast bowlers, he wanted to make an impact immediately, letting the ball fly from a hard length. Even now, he says he can’t believe how far his bowling has travelled since that day. “I was just spraying the ball in four different directions,” he says, almost laughing at the memory.
He felt uncomfortable about it, but Aaron—whom Sakib describes not only as a coach but also like an older brother—told him not to worry. “He said I shouldn’t be bothered and that it would be fine,” Sakib explains. Aaron pointed out that Sakib needed work on his biomechanics and his run-up, but he didn’t rush into changing everything immediately. Instead, he wanted Sakib to repeat the right length and sharpen the top-of-off-stump channel, a area that even seasoned batters can struggle with at times.
“He told me to focus on exactly what he was saying,” Sakib says. “I trusted him and he trusted me. And when I compare that first day to where I am today, I will always remember it. He tells me, Woh pehla din yaad rakhna.”
Just before his IPL debut in April against Rajasthan Royals, Aaron walked up to Sakib, put an arm around him, and told him to go out and play freely. “He said, ‘Look, do what you have been doing—don’t try anything extra. Don’t take any tension. If good things happen, it is okay, and even if bad things happen, it is okay,’” Sakib says. “That gave me a lot of confidence. It felt like someone was there to look after me, and that has helped me move forward.”
Sakib stuck to the plan and delivered. In that match, he picked up four wickets, with Praful Hinge also contributing in the same game, as Sunrisers beat RR comfortably. One of Sakib’s most impressive scalps came when he removed South Africa batter Donovan Ferreira. Ferreira misread the bowler’s hand and didn’t execute his plan properly, getting bowled by a cutter. The ability to alter pace and still keep the ball in the right areas has been one of Sakib’s biggest strengths. He has shown that from a delivery clocking around 140kph, then dropping to roughly 105kph on the very next ball.
In his second outing, Sakib came up against Chennai Super Kings batter Shivam Dube and got the better of him again, repeating the impact in the return match. Five days after his four-wicket haul, in Hyderabad, he was bowling the 17th over when CSK were chasing 195. Dube had exposed the stumps to the off side, and Sakib struck with a reverse-swinging yorker that crashed into the wickets. It was the only wicket he took in that spell, finishing with 32 runs from four overs, but it proved crucial because Dube’s form had been holding CSK’s chase together. Even though he conceded 13 in his opening over during the powerplay, he tightened up afterwards, giving away only 19 across the remaining three.
A month later, in Chennai, Sakib tested Dube once more. Bowling the penultimate over of the first innings, he used cutters and sharp lines to force Dube into uncomfortable choices before dismissing him with a delivery that pitched on leg, stayed low, and beat the bat’s swing to hit the middle stump.
“I felt he was finding it a bit difficult to understand 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 in Hyderabad I bowled the yorker, and I got him bowled.”
During the league stage of the tournament, Sakib sent down 228 balls. Nearly half of them—104—were slower deliveries. He also learned that variation only after he had returned home following the end of the 2024 IPL.
“In 2024, I used to bowl a halka-phulka [half-baked] slower ball,” he says. “When I went home, I had a chat with my friend from tennis cricket days, Sachin Kumar.” Kumar, another major influence from Sakib’s early days, has long been a sounding board for him while honing his bowling. “He told me we need you to develop the slower ball. He suggested I learn it like the one DJ Bravo used to bowl—the dipping slower ones. Sachin taught me that ball, and we worked on it for 10 to 12 days. After that, I continued to develop it.”
Sakib began practising the slower delivery with a tennis ball before transitioning to the cricket ball. Once he felt the grip and the release consistently, he gained the confidence to try it in matches. For a new delivery, the impact depends heavily on accuracy—landing it where the bowler wants it. On that point, Sakib credits Aaron. “My friend [Kumar] taught me,” he says, “but the length to bowl and when—those details—were taught by Varun bhaiyya.”
When asked about his favourite wicket taken in this IPL using the slower ball, Sakib smiles and offers one name. “[Virat] Kohli bhaiyya ka.” The wicket came in Sunrisers’ final league match against defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru last weekend in Hyderabad, on a slow pitch.
Sitting alongside Aaron, Sakib had watched RCB’s bowlers during the first innings as Sunrisers piled up 255. He says that helped him understand the surface and the ball’s behaviour. “We saw the ball was gripping. I noticed it when Rasikh Salam bowled in the powerplay,” he recalls. “We planned it together with Varun bhaiyya and our video analyst.” When his turn came to bowl in the sixth over, Sakib used the slower ball for all six deliveries, getting Kohli on the fifth and preventing the batters from finding pace to work with.
Sunrisers captain Pat Cummins played an important role in that strategy too. “He reads things well on the ground, compared to me,” Sakib says. “He plans 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 said. But the Kohli wicket is one I will always remember.”
Not every lesson has been smooth, though. In the second match against Royals in Jaipur in late April, Sakib endured his most expensive spell of the season so far—1 wicket for 62 runs in four overs.
“You learn from experiences,” he says. Aaron’s message after that outing was also telling. “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.” Sakib explains what it meant: Aaron told him that if anyone spoke about the expensive spell, it would start to matter, so he should stay calm and keep playing without pressure.
That Royals game also marked the first time Cummins led Sunrisers in the season. He had missed the opening seven matches while waiting for fitness clearance from Cricket Australia due to a lower-back injury. Cummins, known for being a clear communicator and widely recognised among the best captains in the sport, asked Sakib to be open, not shy. Sakib jokes that his English is “broken,” but insists he can communicate clearly with Cummins, the other overseas players, and the coaching staff. Cummins, for his part, has described Sakib and Sri Lankan fast bowler Eshan Malinga—both key to Sunrisers reaching the playoffs—as a “captain’s dream”.
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Sakib also has a routine that keeps him grounded. He says there is a video clip he watches every night before switching off. It features an interview recorded by a local news channel in Bihar with his parents after he was picked by KKR in the 2024 IPL auction. In it, his father sits on a wooden cot and breaks into happy tears. His mother, Subuktara Khatoon, speaks about how proud she is that Sakib’s hard work from a young age has finally paid off. “Woh cheez hum ko yaad dila ta hain ki tum kahan se aaye ho.” she says, reminding them where he came from.
Gopalganj is the hometown of two former chief ministers of Bihar—Abdul Ghafoor and Lalu Prasad Yadav—and also of Bollywood actor Pankaj Tripathi. Even India and Bengal fast bowler Mukesh Kumar is from there. Sakib gives his shy grin again when he realises his own name will now be added to the list of people from Gopalganj who have made it big.
For the moment, he has no complicated material goals beyond keeping his parents safe and happy. “Whatever I will earn is for my parents, who struggled for me,” he says. “Personally, I just have to play cricket.”
He adds that when he arrived in the IPL, he wanted something more than money or attention. “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.”
