A boy from Bihar, now the man for UAE: Sohaib Khan’s journey from Gaya to glory at T20 World Cup

NEW DELHI: The scoreboard does not tell you the full story. It rarely does. It will say UAE chased down 151 for a five-wicket victory against Canada; that Sohaib Khan made 51 off 29 balls; that Aryansh Sharma played a match-winning, unbeaten knock of 74; and that Canada were left short at the finish line at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on a Friday night in February 2026.But only close inspection will tell the story of Sohaib Khan, a boy from Bihar who was now the man for the UAE on the world stage. There was a hush in the UAE dugout when the score stood at 66/4 in a chase of 151.Harshit Kaushik had just walked back, and what looked like a comfortable pursuit of 152 runs, had started to wobble.Aryansh Sharma, on 44, stood like a lighthouse at one end. But he needed a partner. Someone with the nerve to walk into a collapsing chase and absorb pressure.Enter Sohaib Khan.After showing poise at the beginning, he started to unleash. Against Dilon Heyliger, he smashed 17 runs in the 17th over, then added 13 more off Jaskaran Singh in the next. When Sohaib finally fell after amassing 51 off 29 balls, thanks to four 4s and four 6s, the scores were tied. His departure felt like a footnote. The job was done.“Before me and Aryansh, I will give a lot of credit to our coach, Lalchand Rajput and the entire management. When I was going to bat, they were saying only one thing, 'just believe in yourself, this is the time, and you can do it,'” Sohaib told reporters in the post-match press conference.On Friday evening, the strategy was simple as he added, “We were requiring only 12 runs per over. As MS Dhoni would say, when you are on the field in a pressure game, just back your technique and be calm, so I was thinking the same.” Born in Bihar, Sohaib spent a significant part of his early life in Gaya. There, he would play tennis-ball cricket. It was long before he encountered professional structures.“I was born in Bihar and spent a lot of time in Bihar’s Gaya district," said the 27-year-old batter. "I started playing professional cricket very late in 2014. But before that, this situation used to come in tennis cricket, when we used to play red tennis there.”The “situation” he refers to, that of a pressure chase, has been his cricketing classroom. While Bihar planted the seed of his urge for cricket, New Delhi helped it grow.“I started my cricketing journey from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, and as I said, this was my home where I started professionally,” Sohaib added.Completing his bachelor's in Sociology from Jamia, he played there for three to four years between 2014 and 2019, turning out in North Zone tournaments in 2017 and 2018. Then brutal reality of cricket in India intervened, and opportunities dried up. COVID struck. And after that, he got married in 2021.“Honestly speaking, this is beyond a game,” he continued. “I moved to UAE during the time of COVID in November 2021, as we were not able to get opportunities here. I got married in 2021.”Life was tiring but not without cricket. By day, he worked as a financial consultant and salesperson. By night, he would hone his cricketing skills under floodlights.ALSO READ: T20 World Cup: Five-star Junaid Siddique, Aryansh Sharma fire UAE to first win“In UAE, there is this cricket infrastructure that we can play cricket at night and do our job in the morning. So, it helped a lot,” he added.“My daughter and my wife were there, my parents were there (today) in the stadium, so I thought this is the game, where I can do my best. No matter how much I have struggled in the last 4-5 years, if this phase happens, it is fine, what else can I ask from God?” he smiled.Friday’s innings will leave a mark on the memories of the cricket fanatics that a boy from Gaya can become a hero for the UAE. A financial consultant can become a World Cup match-winner. A late bloomer can bloom on the biggest stage.