Cricket over the years has evolved enormously especially in T20 format which has taken attention of the viewers over the globe. Since the inception of this format it has been regarded as the game of batters while bowlers stood at the receiving end. Bowlers have their own fair share of success and because of this format spin bowlers have gotten a great reputation. One of the pioneers and veteran of spin bowling who is also widely regarded as The Marathon Man for his celebration is Mohammad Imran Tahir.
Born on 27th March 1979 in Lahore, Pakistan Tahir was working as salesman in a Mall when his fortunes changed when he was selected for Pakistan’s Under-19 team. He didn’t taste much success there and went on to play county cricket for England and finally moved to South Africa which took nearly five years of domestic cricket grind but got the success as it had lack of quality spinners.
In 2005 at the age of 26 Tahir became the resident of South Africa. However, due to country’s policy regarding eligibility to play for national team, Tahir had to wait for many years. During course of time he played nearly 100 first class matches for different domestic teams before finally making his debut for South Africa during Cricket Word Cup 2011 on 24th February against West Indies. It was good tournament for him as he took 14 wickets in 5 games he played.
Tahir became a more prominent figure in white ball format as compared to red ball format. Over the years he has played for nearly 20 T20 teams at the global level. He has played in different leagues around the globe such as Indian Premier League, Lanka Premier League, Caribbean Premier League, Pakistan Super League among others. He was first picked in Indian Premier League by Delhi Capitals(Former Delhi Daredevils) in 2014 and then in 2018 he went to play for Chennai Super Kings where in 2019 he won the Purple Cap by claiming 26 wickets in the edition. In the year 2020 he was drafted into Guyana Amazon Warrior squad for Caribbean Premier League edition. He was made captain in 2023 and they went onto win the tournament for the first time in his captaincy. In a new launched tournament The Hundred in 2021 Tahir became the first bowler to take hat-trick in inaugural edition of the tournament.
Imran Tahir played around 20 Test matches mostly in spin friendly conditions. He was in and out of the test squad. He continued to gain success in white ball cricket as in 2014 T20 World Cup he was joint highest wicket taker in the tournament with 12 wickets. He delivered a stellar performance in 2015 world cup in quarterfinal match against Srilanka to help South Africa reach Semifinal in the World Cup. Also he was part of ICC ODI Team of the year. Tahir overall played in 3 fifty over world cups in 2011,2015 and 2019. In the 2019 World Cup he played his 100th ODI match and at the last group league he retired from the ODI cricket. Overall he took 173 wickets from 107 games. For his contribution to the T20 game he was nominated by the ICC as Men’s T20 Cricketer of the Decade award.
Imran Tahir has set record for playing almost 27 Teams in his career. Though he retired from 50 over format he continue to ply his trade in the shorter formats of the game. As known for his on-field dedication he is also widely regarded as the humble and Jolly person off the field. For his running celebration after taking Wicket he got the title as the Marathon Man. Recently in ILT20 he starting doing CR7 celebration for his son. For his celebration he was nicknamed as Parashakthi Express by his Chennai teammate R Ashwin. He continues to mentor budding cricketers around the globe. Imran Tahir will be turning 45 on 27th March 2024 We wish Happy Birthday and prosperous future ahead
