19-Year Old Son Of Indian Cab Driver Gets Selected In The Australian Cricket Team

Tanveer Sangha, son of an immigrant Punjabi farmer has secured a place in the Australian team for the upcoming New Zealand T20 series.

Tanveer Sangha after winning 'Man of the Match' award in a U-19 WC game in 2020. (Source: Getty Images)

Tanveer Sangha became only the second player of Indian origin to be selected in the Australian team. He has been picked in the 18-man squad that will play a five match T20 series against New Zealand. Previously, Gurinder Sandhu became the first player to have represented Australia, this was six years ago. Tanveer’s father, Joga Singh Sangha was a farmer in Jalandhar. He came to Australia in 1997 with his wife and worked on farms early on but later went on to become a taxi driver in Sydney.

Tanveer was born on 26 November 2001 in Sydney. He is a leg-break bowler who first came to the lime-light when he played the under-19 World Cup for Australia in 2020 and became the highest wicket-taker for Australia in the tournament. He picked up 15 wickets for the Aussies in the tournament. Later, he also played in the Big Bash League for the side, Sydney Thunders.

Tanveer enrolled in East Hills Boys Excessive Faculty and trained there for some time. His father, Joga encouraged him to take up spin-bowling. Joga also said that Tanveer is an over-all sportsperson with interests in Volleyball, Kabaddi and Rugby apart from cricket.

Tanveer was first noticed in 2018 by Australian-Pakistani cricketer Fawad Ahmed in Melbourne. Tanveer says that Ahmed has been his mentor ever since as the 38-year old is a leg spinner himself. It’s being said that Tanveer is a good batsman too as he scored good amount of runs with a strike rate of 83 in the U-19 World Cup. It will be interesting to see Tanveer’s performance at the greatest stage.