Mohammad Imran Tahir is a South African former international cricketer.
34 Facts About Imran Tahir
2.
On 15 June 2016, Imran Tahir became the first South African bowler to take seven wickets in an ODI, and the fastest South African to reach 100 ODI wickets.
3.
Imran Tahir is currently South Africa's leading wicket-taker among spin bowlers in ODIs and T20Is respectively.
4.
On 17 February 2017, Imran Tahir became the fastest South African to reach 50 T20I wickets.
5.
Imran Tahir represented his eighth English county club, when he joined Surrey in 2019, thus setting a new record.
6.
Imran Tahir is widely known for his running celebration after every wicket he takes, known as The Marathon.
7.
Imran Tahir was born in Lahore, Pakistan, and learnt the game while growing up there.
8.
Imran Tahir's fortunes changed when he was selected during trials to represent the Pakistan U-19 cricket team, eventually progressing onto the Pakistan A side on some tours.
9.
Imran Tahir began playing county cricket in England but did not stay there for long.
10.
Imran Tahir then moved to South Africa, which faced a perennial dearth of quality spinners.
11.
In 2005, aged 26, Imran Tahir became a resident of South Africa.
12.
Imran Tahir is married to Sumayya Dildar, a South African woman, and has represented South Africa after becoming eligible to play for them when he met his four-year residence requirement in April 2009.
13.
Imran Tahir made his career high score of 77 not out in a County Championship match against Somerset on 28 August 2009.
14.
Imran Tahir represented Warwickshire for the 2010 season, and then represented Hampshire again until 2014.
15.
When Imran Tahir was called into South Africa's squad for the final Test against England, national coach Mickey Arthur said "I'm not entirely sure what the issues are between him and the Titans, but the Titans obviously aren't going to pick him because they'd rather pick the young leggie they have".
16.
Imran Tahir holds the record for representing highest number of teams in the world.
17.
Imran Tahir took 26 wickets for the team in IPL 2019, winning the Purple Cap.
18.
On 9 August 2021, whilst playing for Birmingham Phoenix against Welsh Fire, Imran Tahir became the first bowler to take a hat-trick in the inaugural season of The Hundred.
19.
Imran Tahir was first called up to the South African Test team in 2010 when England were touring, but it was an error by the selection committee as he would not eligible to play for South Africa until January 2011.
20.
Imran Tahir was quickly withdrawn from the team then, but found his way back almost immediately after becoming eligible to play.
21.
Imran Tahir debuted for South Africa in a match against the West Indies on 24 February 2011 at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in Delhi.
22.
Imran Tahir took 4 wickets for 41 runs in 10 overs during his debut match.
23.
Imran Tahir impressed immediately, picking 14 wickets in the five games he played.
24.
Imran Tahir made his Test debut against Australia at Cape Town in November 2011 and was a regular part of the squad for four years.
25.
Imran Tahir was left out after one bad Test with the ball against India and was replaced by Robin Peterson, but he continued to do well in the shorter forms of the game.
26.
Imran Tahir continued to be a regular member of the South African side in all formats and played Test matches in spin-friendly conditions.
27.
Imran Tahir was joint highest wicket-taker in the tournament along with Ahsan Malik from the Netherlands; both took 12 wickets in the tournament.
28.
Imran Tahir played in the opening match of the tournament, against hosts England.
29.
At the age of 40 years and 64 days, Imran Tahir became the oldest cricketer for South Africa to play in a World Cup match.
30.
Imran Tahir bowled the opening over of the tournament, therefore becoming the first spinner to bowl the first over in a World Cup match.
31.
Imran Tahir took the first wicket of the World Cup, dismissing England's Jonny Bairstow for a duck.
32.
In South Africa's next match in the World Cup, against Bangladesh, Imran Tahir played in his 100th ODI.
33.
Imran Tahir retired from the game after playing his team's last group stage match against Australia, along with teammate JP Duminy.
34.
In November 2020, Imran Tahir was nominated for the ICC Men's T20I Cricketer of the Decade award.