![\"Daily-wager\u2019s](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-130483585,imgsize-48842,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/nausheen-naz.jpg\" "\\"Nausheen")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\nBHOPAL: At a national camp in the city, Nausheen Naz, 15, trains alongside probables who own multiple kits. Naz borrows gear. Her father Ahfaz Khan, a daily-wager earning about Rs 250 a day, cannot buy her a proper hockey stick. No kit. No safety net.But the girl from Madhya Pradesh\u2019s Seoni is India\u2019s most exciting women\u2019s hockey forward prospect, closing in on a spot in the Under-18 Asia Cup squad for Japan from May 29.<\/p>\n Watch<\/span><\/p>\n Jay Shah\u2019s 2036 Olympic blueprint for India: ‘8 Medals won\u2019t cut it’<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. <\/span>SUBSCRIBE NOW!<\/a>Four years ago, her journey began in a cramped, roofless rented shack in Seoni, around 380km southeast of Bhopal. A discarded, broken hockey stick became her tool. \u201cWithout complaining, she tied it with a cloth, tied it again when it split, and kept playing,\u201d said Khan, 48.<\/p>\n Breakthrough came in 2023 when MP Hockey Academy spotted her. Training, diet, equipment \u2014 all followed. \u201cThe academy has been her lifeline, providing gear and training that I couldn\u2019t,\u201d said her father.Dreams quickly turned into numbers. At 16th sub-junior women\u2019s national championship in Bihar\u2019s Rajgir earlier this month, Naz tore through defences \u2014 nine goals, top scorer, player of the final. Khan watched, overwhelmed.\u201cI shed tears seeing her today,\u201d he said. Once unsure about her pursuit because of crushing poverty, he now stands firm against social pushback over her training attire. \u201cIf anyone stops my daughter, they\u2019ll face me first.\u201dNaz is one of seven siblings. Hunger, space, and money remain daily constraints. Yet talent and dedication keep forcing doors open. Her younger sister Sabarika has entered the academy after talent hunts.India\u2019s hockey story has long drawn strength from small towns and hard ground. From dusty fields to national camps, many of its finest have risen from modest homes where sport competes with survival. Naz fits that lineage \u2014 raw, relentless, unfiltered by privilege. \u201cI have only one goal: to play for the country,\u201d she said, eyes fixed on the Asia Cup<\/a>.<\/div>\nNausheen\u2019s only goal: To play for India<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n