Nuzhat Parween (born 5 September 1996) is an Indian

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er who plays as a

wicket-keeper In cricket, the wicket-keeper is the Cricket player, player on the fielding (cricket), fielding side who stands behind the wicket, ready to stop Delivery (cricket), deliveries that pass the batsman, and take a Caught, catch, Stumped, stump the ...

. Domestically, she plays for

Railways Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to roa ...

in the

Women's Senior One Day Trophy The Senior Women's One Day Trophy, previously known as the Senior Women's One Day League, is a women's List A cricket tournament held in India. It began in the 2006–07 Senior Women's One Day League, 2006–07 season, with 24 teams representin ...

and Women's Senior T20 Trophy. A multi-talented athlete, she is a former football captain of the Madhya Pradesh under-16 football team, she joined

Singrauli Singrauli is a city in Singrauli district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and Commissionaire of Rewa. It lies about from the district headquarters of Waidhan. History Previously it was a part of Singrauli State which was ruled by the ...

's district cricket team in 2011. She made her debut for the Indian national team in November 2016, in a

Twenty20 International Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of Twenty20 cricket, in which each team plays a single innings with a maximum of twenty overs. The matches are played between international teams recognized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). ...

series against the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

Early life

Nuzhat is the daughter of Masih Alam and Nasima Begum. She has four siblings - elder brother Aamir Sohail, elder sister Nemat Parween, younger sister Aasiyah Parween and younger brother Ayan Ashraf Sohail. She was born in

and used to play domestic cricket for

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

and

Central Zone Central Zone may refer to: Places * Central Indo-Aryan languages, or the "Central Zone" of Indo-Aryan, a language group of India * Central Zone, Bhutan, an administrative district of Bhutan * Central Zone of São Paulo, an administrative zone of th ...

. She now plays for

. Nuzhat played

gully cricket A gully is a landform created by running water, mass movement, or both, which erodes soil to a sharp angle, typically on a hillside or in river floodplains or terraces. Gullies resemble large ditches or small valleys, but are metres to t ...

with her schoolmates from childhood. Before getting into cricket, she represented Madhya Pradesh in football Nationals and was a gold medalist in state athletics (100 m). Her family was quite supportive of her sports activities, but she faced societal pressure. According to Nuzhat, this changed after her participation in the 2017 World Cup. According to Nuzhat, her football experience helped her build stamina and strength that have helped her as a wicket-keeper. In 2012, she met

Mithali Raj Mithali Raj (born 3 December 1982) is an Indian former cricketer who captained the national team from 2004 to 2022. She is the highest run-scorer in women's international cricket, and ESPN ranked her as one of the greatest female cricketers of ...

at a tournament, and was inspired to take up cricket. In her Class 12th, despite missing classes due to practices, she scored 91.8% (Commerce). During her school years, her family took the decision of admitting her to a well-known private school to bring Parween the opportunities she needed.

Career

Nuzhat used to be a football player and was the captain of Madhya Pradesh for their under-16 football team. Nuzhat is the first Indian player to make it to the national team within just five years. Her journey in cricket started in 2011 when a women's team for an inter-district tournament was formed in Singrauli, and the administration did not have enough players. Nuzhat who was a junior national football player then, was invited to be part of the team. She started out as a wicket-keeper, in the inter-district cricket competition, representing the Singrauli team. Based on her performance, she was given a special place in Madhya Pradesh's Under-19 Women's Cricket Team. In 2012–13, based on her performance, she was selected as vice-captain in the Central Zone under-19 women's cricket team. She took coaching under coach Aril Anthony of the Rewa Divisional Cricket Association. She would travel by bus from Singrauli to Rewa, nine hours by road, for 15–20 days in 3 months to practice under her coach. According to Nuzhat, she would often travel alone and this would cause her family to worry for her security, as travel option in Singrauli are limited. Nuzhat came to know about her selection for the national team while travelling back to Singrauli from Bhopal by train. She was the youngest player to make it to the World squad after

Deepti Sharma Deepti Sharma (born 24 August 1997) is an Indian cricketer who plays for Uttar Pradesh, UP Warriorz, London Spirit, Melbourne Stars and India. She is an all-rounder who bats left-handed and bowls right-arm off break. As of 2018, she was ranke ...

. Her jersey number is seven. She made her

Women's One Day International cricket Women's One Day International (ODI) is the limited overs cricket, limited overs form of women's cricket. Matches are scheduled for 50 over (cricket), overs, equivalent to the One Day International, men's game. The first women's ODIs were played ...

(WODI) debut against Ireland in the 2017 South Africa Quadrangular Series on 15 May 2017. Parween was part of the Indian squad to reach the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

of the

2017 Women's Cricket World Cup The 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup was an international women's cricket tournament that took place in England from 24 June to 23 July 2017. It was the eleventh edition of the Women's Cricket World Cup, and the third to be held in England (after ...

where the team lost to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

by nine runs.England v India: Women's World Cup final – live!
''The Guardian'', 23 July 2017. On her return to Singrauli, she was received at the train station by a big crowd of people, including a group of children, DCA Singrauli members, media, and her family. She started her Women's Premier League journey with Royal Challengers Bengaluru in 2025.

Personal interests

Her favourite sports movies are the iconic women's hockey film

Chak de India ''Chak De! India'' (transl. ''Let’s go! India'') is a 2007 Indian sports drama film directed by Shimit Amin and produced by Aditya Chopra under the Yash Raj Films banner. The film stars Shah Rukh Khan as Kabir Khan, a former captain of the ...

and ' M. S. Dhoni: The Untold Story'. She is greatly inspired by

and

MS Dhoni Mahendra Singh Dhoni (; born 7 July 1981) is an Indian professional cricketer who plays as a right-handed batter and a wicket-keeper. Widely regarded as one of the most prolific wicket-keeper batsmen and captains and one of the greatest O ...

. She also follows England wicket-keeper Sarah Taylor. Nuzhat is pursuing a B Com via distance education course, while pursuing cricket dreams. She credits fellow cricketer Haripriya Das, who guided her through her journey.

References

External links

Female Cricket interviews Nuzhat Parween
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Parween, Nuzhat 1996 births Living people People from Singrauli district Indian women cricketers India women One Day International cricketers India women Twenty20 International cricketers Madhya Pradesh women cricketers Railways women cricketers Central Zone women cricketers IPL Trailblazers cricketers Indian Muslims Wicket-keepers