By The Numbers: Namibia's new recruit joins club of three
Two teams have made their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup debuts in this tournament. Papua New Guinea, with their match against Oman on the opening day of the tournament in Al Amerat, became the 20th team to feature in the tournament that was first played in 2007 and is having its seventh edition hosted by India in Oman and the UAE. Namibia became the 21st team to appear in the tournament when they locked horns with Sri Lanka on the second day in Abu Dhabi. Both debutants PNG and Namibia had a tough first outing as they were defeated by Oman and Sri Lanka respectively.
Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan is the new leading wicket-taker in men’s T20 Internationals. The 34-year-old accounted for two wickets in Bangladesh’s opening match against Scotland and has taken his career tally to 108 wickets - the highest for any bowler, breaking Lasith Malinga’s record of 107 T20I wickets. Shakib’s two scalps came in vain as his team were beaten by Scotland by six runs.
The 89-match-veteran was part of the Bangladesh XI that was the most experienced side in T20 Internationals. The combined sum of Bangladesh’s 11 players against Scotland was 561 matches, toppling England’s record of 538 T20Is among the XI against Pakistan in Manchester earlier this year.
Shakib is one of three Bangladesh players, the other two being Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah, who have featured in all seven editions of ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. There are three other players who have played in the previous six editions and are likely to play this year as well – India’s Rohit Sharma and West Indies’ Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo.
Twenty-two-year-old Curtis Campher had a dream T20 World Cup debut for Ireland in the match against Netherlands in Abu Dhabi. He etched his name in history books when he took four wickets in four balls and became only the third bowler to achieve this feat in Men’s T20Is. The two before him were Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan (against Ireland in Dehradun in 2019) and Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga (against New Zealand in Pallekele in 2019).
After going for 12 runs in his over, Campher made a comeback in the second over and accounted for four wickets on the bounce. Two of them needed help from the Decision Review System, which is being used in the Men’s T20 World Cup for the first time.
Campher is also the first from Ireland to take a hat-trick in T20Is and only the second bowler, after Australia’s Brett Lee (against Bangladesh in Cape Town in 2007), to have one in ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
Only three men have played in ICC Men’s T20 World Cup for two different teams. David Wiese is the latest to join the list. Wiese played the previous edition in India in 2016 for South Africa and is playing the 2021 tournament for Namibia. He had a quiet outing in the first match against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi with both bat and ball as he scored only 6 off 7 and couldn’t take a wicket in his two overs.
Dirk Nannes and Roelf van der Merwe are the other two who have played T20 World Cup for different nations. Nannes played the 2009 event for Netherlands in England and switched to Australia next year in the Caribbean. Van der Merwe, who is playing the ongoing event and played in the previous edition in 2016 for Netherlands, had previously represented South Africa in 2009 and 2010.
Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi completed its half-century of men’s T20 Internationals with a double-header on Monday. The game between Namibia and Sri Lanka was the 50th T20I played at the stadium that made its debut with an Afghanistan vs Scotland match in 2010. It is only the third venue in the world, after Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur (54) and Dubai International Stadium (64), to host 50 Men’s T20 Internationals.
It is also the 24th venue to host a T20 World Cup match and is scheduled to host 13 more, including the first semi-final on November 10.
In the game between Namibia and Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi, two bowlers took a wicket with their first ball in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. Sri Lanka’s wily spinner Maheesh Theekshana, also named player-of-the-match for his three wickets for 25 runs, struck with his very first ball in the World Cup when he dismissed Stephan Baard.
Namibian seamer JJ Smit created a similar record in the second innings when he got the better of Dinesh Chandimal. Fourteen players have taken a wicket with their first ball in the T20 World Cup. The only other Sri Lankan to do it is Seekkuge Prasanna in the semi-final against West Indies at Mirpur in 2014.