It is often said that one person’s misfortune is another’s opportunity. Samuel Badree‘s injury opened up an avenue for Tabraiz Shamsi to hog the limelight for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the ninth edition of the IPL. Let us take a look at some important facts about the obscure cricketer’s journey, so far.
1) Tabraiz Shamsi was born on February 18, 1990, in Johannesburg which is South Africa’s largest city. After making his debut for Gauteng in 2009, he has been turning out for the Titans in the South African domestic circuit.
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2) Shamsi is a chinaman bowler who has picked up 272 wickets from 68 First-Class matches at an impressive average of 24.90. However, the left-arm spinner’s limited-overs statistics are slightly underwhelming with 45 wickets from 44 Twenty-20 fixtures at an average of 23.64 and economy rate of 7.03.
3) But, the 26-year old grabbed the attention of onlookers during the 2015 edition of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) when he topped the bowling charts for St Kitts and Nevis Patriots with 11 wickets from 7 games at an average of 13.27 and his economy rate of 6.79.
4)The interesting part of his performance in the CPL was that he managed to overshadow Badree’s exploits with his exemplary control. Though Badree‘s Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel eventually won the title, Shamsi‘s average was the second best for any spinner with more than 10 wickets after Devendra Bishoo.
5) It was nothing short of a miracle that he actually participated in the Caribbean festival. According to SuperSport, Tabraiz impressed Marlon Samuels during a practice match for the West Indians against a South African invitational XI during December 2014 and was signed by the Patriots upon the maverick batsman’s insistence.
6) Armed with a vast array of variations such as the top-spinner, googly and the flipper, Tabraiz possesses an air of mystery around him. South African spinner Imran Tahir was reportedly the one who taught him how to control the flipper.
7) Growing up in a busy urban area, Shamsi‘s ambition was to become a magician during his fun-filled childhood days. Despite being unable to make it to the stage, he has made up for it by confounding plenty of batsmen on the field.
8) Perhaps, due to South African cricket’s hesitancy to trust young spinners, Shamsi has not been able to break into the national team. When he found himself thrust into the final of a tournament after being sidelined previously, the wrist-spinner responded with a remarkable spell of 10-0-32-1 which included the wicket of the hard-hitting Richard Levi.
9) Quite active in social media, Shamsi has also dabbled in marketing as a student. The South African is known for performing unique celebrations after outfoxing batsmen for which he has publicly credited the West Indies cricketers.
10) Reveling in being a chinaman exponent which is a difficult art to master, Tabraiz has captured the interest of stalwarts such as RCB bowling coach Allan Donald who has warned rival teams to watch out for this unknown spinner.
[Statistics via ESPNCricinfo]
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