Ever heard of Tanveer Sangha vis-a-vis cricket? He is a surprise uncapped Indian mystery bowler whose name popped into the preliminary World Cup ODI squad of Australia. A young New South Wales uncapped leg-spinner Tanveer was born in Sydney. Sangha’s ancestral background is from Rahimpur, a village in the Punjab state of India near Jalandhar. His family migrated to Australia in the late 1990s, and his father, Joga Sangha moved there for education before settling into a career as a taxi driver. Meanwhile, Sangha’s mother Upneet is an accountant.

The player born on the 26th of November, 2001 has played only five List A matches till now among which the last one was his ODI match against Sri Lanka A in which he scalped two wickets. The player was considered the leading wicket-taker for the U-19 Australian team during the under-19 ODI World Cup a few years back, where he has a count of two 4-wicket hauls and a 5-wicket haul in his name. He had a count of 15 wickets during that tournament. He also took the wicket of the emerging Indian batsman, Yashasvi Jaiswal, during that tournament.

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During the 2020-21 season, he was selected by Sydney Thunders and managed to take 21 wickets. In the following season, he picked up 16 wickets for the team. Unfortunately, he suffered a back injury during the 2022-23 season and had limited participation.

Tanveer has recently been chosen to play for the Australian team in a three-match T20I and a five-match ODI series against South Africa, starting on August 30th. Furthermore, he has been included in the preliminary squad for Australia’s upcoming match against India on October 8th. The final team for the ODI World Cup in India will be reduced to 15 members from the current 18-member squad.

According to the Chief Selector of the Australia Men’s Team, George Bailey, “Tanveer’s Big Bash form when he has been fit has been excellent so he’s one we are impressed with. The common thing around Tanveer is that he is very mature on the field and a great thinker about how he goes about it.”

The Australian team has to submit their final team to ICC by the 28th of September before departing for the World Cup. He will be the second player after Gurinder Sandhu to play in Australia. Moreover, the injury which occurred with Australian captain, Pat Cummins during the Ashes series might give the player some chance to showcase his talent during the South Africa series as Cummins has been given a six weeks rest due to his fracture. He is expected to be back with the squad before the World Cup. In this crucial situation if Sangha can showcase his mystery spin against the Africans, he can become a strong spin option along with Agar and Zampa who can dominate the opponents in the World Cup as Indian pitches seem to favour spin more.