When the Indian squad for the Afghanistan Test was announced on Tuesday evening, cricket followers in Jammu & Kashmir went straight to the fast bowlers’ list.

Mohammed Siraj was there. Prasidh Krishna too.

Then came Gurnoor Brar’s maiden call-up.

Auqib Nabi’s name never arrived.

For many in Kashmir cricket, that was difficult to digest.

Only a few months ago, Nabi was the bowler tearing through batting line-ups in the Ranji Trophy and leading Jammu & Kashmir’s charge towards a title nobody thought possible at the start of the season. In the final against Karnataka, he bowled with the kind of intensity that changes matches early. KL Rahul edged one. Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair too followed.

By the end of the match, J&K had created history with their first Ranji Trophy title, and Nabi had finished with a five-wicket haul in the biggest game of his career.

Normally, that sort of season pushes a player into the national conversation automatically.

This time, it did not.

The numbers are not ordinary either. Nabi has taken more than 100 wickets across the last two Ranji seasons. Last season alone, he finished with 60 wickets in 10 matches, the highest in the tournament. The previous year, he had already picked up 44 wickets in eight matches.

There was also that hat-trick in the Duleep Trophy which briefly made people feel the India cap was now only a matter of time.

Instead, the wait continues.

Chief selector Ajit Agarkar admitted Nabi’s name did come up during discussions. According to Agarkar, India preferred going with only three seamers because the match is at home.

That explanation has not ended the debate.

Former India opener Aakash Chopra publicly questioned the decision and openly wondered what more Nabi needed to do after becoming one of the country’s most successful domestic bowlers over the last two years.

Even former J&K captain Samiullah Beigh reacted strongly, calling the omission “grossly unfair”.

Inside Kashmir cricket circles, the disappointment is obvious.

Players from the region have always felt they need extraordinary seasons to get noticed nationally. Nabi seemed to have delivered exactly that. Not just wickets, but impact wickets. Match-winning spells. Big performances in knockout games.

That is why many expected this to finally be his moment.

To be fair, selectors do not pick teams purely on statistics. They look at pace, conditions, combinations and long-term planning. Gurnoor Brar is a promising bowler and clearly somebody the selectors see potential in.

Still, comparisons were always going to happen because the gap in first-class output between the two bowlers is significant.

Indian cricket repeatedly talks about the importance of domestic cricket. Every season, players are told that performances in the Ranji Trophy matter. Nabi’s case has now become part of that larger discussion.

Because if a fast bowler can take over 100 wickets in two seasons, lead his side to a historic Ranji Trophy win and still remain outside the Indian team against Afghanistan, then naturally people will ask where exactly the reward for domestic cricket lies.

For now, Nabi will go back to doing what he has done for two years, bowl long spells, keep taking wickets and wait for the next squad announcement.