IPL 2016: 10 facts about Tabraiz Shamsi
Apr 22, 2016 at 12:04 PM
RCB (Royal Challengers Bangalore) shocked everyone when they replaced injured Samuel Badree with uncapped South African cricketer Tabraiz Shamsi. Tabraiz Shamsi is an unknown name in cricket as he has not made debut in international cricket. However, his domestic performances seemed to have impressed the ‘experts’ at RCB.
Check out the 10 facts about Tabraiz Shamsi in the following:
1) Tabraiz Shamsi was born on 18th February 1990 at Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa. Shamsi is a slow left-arm Chinaman bowler. Left-arm Chinaman is also known as left-arm unorthodox spin which moves from off-stump to leg-stump, similarly to a traditional off-spinner but with more spin due to the use of the wrist. Shamsi is a right-handed lower order batsman.
2) Shamsi was a marketing student. Shamsi is also an amateur magician. Once he said, “I’m a bit of a clown, I won’t lie. As a youngster, I actually wanted to be a magician. Seriously, like a pro. It was not just a phase as a kid.”
3) Shamsi made domestic cricket debut at the age of 19 (in the year 2009) for Gauteng. At the age of 26, Shamsi has already played for Dolphins, Easterns, Gauteng Under-19s, KwaZulu-Natal, KwaZulu-Natal Inland, Lions, South Africa A, St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, Titans.
4) Till date, Shamsi has played 68 first-class matches along with 42 List A matches and 44 T20s (not confused with T20Is). He has picked up 272 wickets in first-class cricket while he has also taken 44 wickets and 45 wickets in List A career and T20 career respectively.
5) In his 117 first-class innings, Shamsi took 5 or more wickets for 18 times. On the other hand, Shamsi has already celebrated 10-wicket haul for 5 times in his 68 first-class matches. Till date, his best bowling performance in first-class cricket was 8/85 in an innings while 13/120 in a match.
6) In the 2015-16 Sunfoil series (South Africa’s first class competition), Shamsi was 4th highest wicket takers as he picked up 20 wickets in 4 matches (7 innings). His side Titans won 2015-16 Sunfoil series.
7) Shamsi came into the limelight from CPL (Caribbean Premier League) 2015, an annual T20 cricket tournament held in the Caribbean, where he took 11 wickets in 7 matches for St Kitts and Nevis Patriots.
8) South African leg-spinner Imran Tahir is Shamsi’s biggest influence in the cricket career. Tahir taught Shamsi how to bowl ‘flipper’. However, this ‘flipper’ is still under construction.
9) Once, South African left-arm spinner Paul Harris praised Shamsi on his variety. Harris said on it, “His Chinaman, googly and top spin are all very good. He disguises his googly very well.”
10) Tabraiz Shamsi is regularly active on the social media especially Twitter. His official Twitter account is – https://twitter.com/shamsi90.