Auqib Nabi sets five Ranji Trophy milestones as Jammu & Kashmir claim 2025-26 title
Auqib Nabi starred for Jammu & Kashmir in the Ranji Trophy 2025-26 final at the KSCA Ground in Hubli on 30 September 2026, taking a five-wicket haul as J&K were named champions on the basis of a first-innings lead.
Jammu & Kashmir batted first in the final and posted 584, with Shubham Pundir scoring 121 and captain Paras Dogra contributing 70; five batters reached half-centuries in that innings. Karnataka, an eight-time champion, were dismissed for 293 in their first innings, and Nabi returned figures of five for 54 to spearhead the J&K bowling effort.
Across the Ranji Trophy 2025-26 season Nabi finished with 60 wickets from 10 matches at an average of 12.57, including two four-wicket hauls and seven five-wicket hauls. That 60-wicket return made him the first bowler from Jammu & Kashmir to take more than 50 wickets in a single Ranji Trophy season and improved on his own tally of 44 wickets from the 2024-25 season.
Nabi’s big-match contributions included 12 wickets in the quarter-final against Madhya Pradesh, nine wickets in the semi-final against Bengal, and the five-wicket haul in the final versus Karnataka. Those performances accounted for a substantial portion of his season total and came as he led J&K’s pace attack through the knockout rounds.
With 60 wickets in 2025-26, Nabi became the third pacer with the most wickets in a single Ranji season, behind Jaydev Unadkat (67 in 2018-19) and Dodda Ganesh (62 in 1998-99). Overall, the J&K pacer is reported as the seventh pacer in the list of bowlers with the most wickets in a single Ranji Trophy season.
Over the two Ranji seasons of 2024-25 and 2025-26 Nabi accumulated 13 five-wicket hauls, placing him second on that two-season list behind Bihar’s Asutosh Aman, who took 14 fifers across 2018-19 and 2019-20. Nabi finished the 2025-26 campaign with seven five-wicket hauls, equalling the season tally achieved by Jaydev Unadkat (2019-20), Aniket Choudhary (2018-19) and Lakshmipathy Balaji (2002-03); Asutosh Aman recorded nine in 2018-19 and Bishan Singh Bedi took eight in 1974-75.
Nabi’s 60 wickets in 2025-26 also pushed his two-season aggregate past the 100-wicket mark; he became the fifth bowler to take 100 wickets across two Ranji seasons, finishing with 104 wickets in 18 matches at an average of 13.14 and 13 five-wicket hauls. Other bowlers listed ahead of or alongside him on that two-season wicket list include Asutosh Aman (117), Kanwaljit Singh (113 in 1998-99 and 1999), Shahbaz Nadeem (107 in 2015-16 and 2016-17), Jaydev Unadkat (106 in 2018-19 and 2019-20) and Ishwar Choudhary (exactly 100 in 2018-19 and 2019-20).
Jammu & Kashmir’s Ranji Trophy triumph was directly supported by Nabi’s season-long bowling return, and his domestic form has coincided with a move in the IPL player market: Delhi Capitals purchased Nabi for ₹8.4 crore in the IPL 2026 auction. Across his first-class career to date he has taken 156 wickets from 41 matches, including 16 five-wicket hauls and four 10-wicket hauls.