Jansher Khan

To wear the name Jansher Khan on a Pakistani squash court is to inherit a shadow the size of eight World Open titles. A new junior from Peshawar is doing exactly that — one age-group tournament at a time.

Jansher Khan is part of the PSF's current 'Champions of Tomorrow' quartet, alongside Hamza Khan, Noor Zaman and Sohail Qaiser. He trains inside the KP Squash Academy programme in Peshawar, the pipeline set up under record eight-time World Champion Jansher Khan when he was installed as head coach at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sports Directorate at the end of 2020.

That pipeline was designed to answer a single question — where is Pakistan's next great player coming from? — and this young Jansher is one of its most closely watched answers. He has moved through the KP district and Punjab open junior circuits, and travels as part of the federation's age-group contingents to Asian junior events.

The weight of the name is real. The original Jansher Khan won his first World Open at nineteen and finished with eight world titles and six British Open crowns — a record that has never been matched. The younger player carrying that name today does not talk about it much in interviews. His coaches say that is the right instinct.