Indian origin leggie in Aus T20 squad

Tanveer Sangha is only the second cricketer of Indian origin to be picked for an Australian team.

The 19 year old from Sydney is a member of the Australian T20 squad which will play New Zealand next month.

Australia Selector George Bailey informed Tanveer of the happy development, which came as a 'shock' for the leggie.

Tanveer, who is yet to play a first class game, got a call up to the national squad on the back of his impressive show for Sydney Thunder in his debut season in the Big Bash League.

Scalping an impressive 21 wickets at an average of 16.66 in 14 matches so far (Sydney Thunder play the BBL final on Sunday), the lanky Tanveer, who represented Australia in the Under-19 World Cup last year (he was the team's most successful bowler with 15 wickets in the tournament), caught the eye of the Aussie selectors.

'I didn't expect it all,' Tanveer told Australian Associated Press.

'It was a massive shock to me and I didn't know how or what to feel. I definitely feel grateful for the opportunity,' he added.

Coming from the suburbs of Sydney, Tanveer's father was a farmer in Punjab before he moved to Australia in the 1990s. According to reports, his father now drives a taxi in Sydney, while his mother works as an accountant.

Tanveer, who started as a fast bowler in school cricket -- he studied at East Hills Boys High School, where the Waugh twins and Olympic swimming great Ian Thorpe are alumni -- moved to spin bowling in his teens and was eventually mentored by Australian leggie Fawad Ahmad.

Ahmad, who was part of the 2015 Ashes squad and played a few white ball cricket games for the national team, took Tanveer under his wing when he was 16 and has seen been his guide.

'I try to learn as much as I can -- from what I see and from what I talk to other leg-spinners about,' the teenager said, adding that 'Fawad definitely helped me with a few things.'

If picked to play for Australia, Tanveer will be only the second player of Indian origin to don the canary yellow, the first Indian-origin cricketer being Gurinder Singh Sandhu, a right-arm pacer, who made his debut against India in an ODI in 2015 in Melbourne.

Australia's 5-match T20I tour of New Zealand starts on February 22.

Australia" Aaron Finch (captain), Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Daniel Sams, Tanveer Sangha, D'Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa.