India, Feb. 28 -- The day before the 2025-2026 Ranji Trophy final, on the morning of February 23, Qamran Iqbal had no inkling that he would be featuring in the historic match kicking off the very next day far away in Karnataka's Hubballi.

But then the Jammu and Kashmir opener Shubham Khajuria, one of the mainstays of the team, got injured. In a rush, Iqbal was called over the phone by the team management, and asked to join the team as soon as he could. He took the next available flight out of Srinagar and then a couple more from Delhi and Mumbai before he reached Hubballi minutes before the kick-off.

Iqbal was interviewed at the ground shortly after the J&K win on Saturday and he recounted his frenetic travel. "I'm feeling good [after t...