Mohammad Imran Tahir (Punjabi: عمران طاہر; * March 27, 1979) is a South African cricketer born in Pakistan. As a spin bowler, who mostly skittles googlies and a right-handed batsman, Tahir played for South Africa in all three forms of cricket, but preferred the white ball games.
On June 15, 2016, Tahir became the first South African bowler to score seven wickets in an ODI, and also the fastest South African to hit 100 ODI wickets (58 games). He is currently South Africa's leading wicket taker among spin bowlers in ODIs and T20Is.
On February 17, 2017, Tahir became the fastest South African to reach 50 T20I wickets. On March 4, 2017, he recorded the most economical numbers of a South African spinner against New Zealand in an ODI with 2 wickets for 14 runs of 10 overs.
On October 3, 2018, he became the fourth bowler for South Africa to score a hat trick in ODIs. In March 2019, he announced that he would quit ODI cricket after the 2019 World Cricket Championship.
When he came to Surrey in 2019, he represented his eighth English county club, setting a new record.
He is well known for his running party after every wicket he takes, known as The Marathon.
Personal life
Imran Tahir was born in Lahore, Pakistan and learned the game while growing up there. As the eldest sibling, he started working as a retail salesman at the Pace Shopping Mall in Lahore at the age of 16 on a meager salary to support his family. His fortunes changed when he was selected during the trials to represent the Pakistani U-19 cricket team and eventually promoted to the Pakistani A-side on some tours. However, he did not succeed in transitioning to the next level.
He started playing cricket in England County but did not stay there long. Then he moved to South Africa, where there was a constant shortage of quality spinners. In South Africa he played home cricket for five years and lived "hand to mouth" for the first two years.
Domestic and T20 careers
In addition to his distinguished career in Pakistan, Tahir had brief stints with Yorkshire and Middlesex in county cricket and played for Staffordshire in the Minor Counties Cricket Championship.
While representing the Pakistani U19 cricket team and Pakistan A, Tahir failed to win the full international awards for Pakistan. In 2005, Tahir became a resident of South Africa at the age of 26. He is married to Sumayya Dildar, a South African, and has represented South Africa after completing his four-year residency requirement in April 2009. 2/50 of 10 overs in the final against Sussex. Tahir achieved his career high score of 77 in a county championship match against Somerset on August 28, 2009.
For the 2010 season, Hampshire signed the Sri Lankan spinner Ajantha Mendis, who replaced Tahir for the season. Tahir represented Warwickshire for the 2010 season and then Hampshire again until 2014.
Tahir made his 100th first-class appearance in the 2009/2010 SuperSport Series when the Titans played against the Lions. On January 8, Tahir was named to the South Africa squad in the Test series against England, although he was withdrawn a day later after Cricket South Africa announced that he was ineligible.
At the end of the 2009/10 season, Tahir moved from the Titans to the Dolphins. The reason for this was a lack of first-class cricket at the club, which preferred to play against 23-year-old leg spinner Shaun von Berg. When Tahir was called up to South Africa's squad for the final Test against England, national coach Mickey Arthur said: “I'm not exactly sure what the problems are between him and the Titans, but the Titans are obviously not going to pick him because they would prefer choose the young Leggie they have ". He holds the record for the highest number of teams (27) in the world. In 2012 he joined the Highveld Lions.
In January 2018, it was bought by the Chennai Super Kings at the 2018 IPL auction. In October 2018, he was named to the Nelson Mandela Bay Giants squad for the first edition of the Mzansi Super League T20 tournament.
In July 2019 he was selected to play for the Amsterdam Knights in the first edition of the Euro T20 slam cricket tournament. However, the following month the tournament was canceled. In September 2019, he was named to the roster of the Nelson Mandela Bay Giants team for the 2019 Mzansi Super League tournament.
In July 2020, he was named to the squad of the Guyana Amazon Warriors for the 2020 Caribbean Premier League.
On August 9, 2021, while playing for Birmingham Phoenix against Welsh Fire, Tahir became the first bowler to score a hat trick in The Hundred's inaugural season.
International career
Tahir was first called up to the South African test team in 2010 when England toured, but it was a selection committee mistake as he wasn't eligible to play for South Africa until January 2011. He was then quickly withdrawn from the team. but found his way back almost immediately after being eligible to play.
Tahir qualified for South Africa on January 1, 2011 and was selected by them for the 2011 Cricket World Cup. Despite being part of the South African squad to play a five-game ODI series against India ahead of the World Cup, Tahir didn't make his debut. Captain Graeme Smith stated that this was because "[Tahir] is someone we want to keep fresh and we didn't want people to get the chance to see too much of him."
Imran Tahir made his debut for South Africa in a game against the West Indies on February 24, 2011 at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi. He took 4 wickets for 41 runs in 10 overs during his debut game. He impressed immediately, choosing 14 wickets in the five games he played.
He made his test debut against Australia in Cape Town in November 2011 and has been an integral part of the squad for four years. He wasn't selected for the first Test in the 2013 Test streak against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates, but he came back strong in the second by bagging a five-wicket haul on the first day of the test match. Tahir was again left out after a poor test with the ball against India and was replaced by Robin Peterson, but he continued to do well in the shorter forms of play. He continued to be a regular member of the South African team in all formats and played friendly matches under spin-friendly conditions.
In November 2012, Tahir bowled 37 overs in a friendly against Australia without wickets for 260 runs - the worst bowling numbers in the history of the friendly. After the test, he was dropped and replaced by Robin Peterson. In October 2013, Tahir made a comeback to Test cricket when he took 5 wickets in an innings for the first time in a Test match and led South Africa to victory over Pakistan by one innings and 92 runs in the Dubai Test, leveling the series 1-1. He took 8 wickets in the match.
At the ICC World Twenty20 2014 Tahir gave back his best numbers of 4-21 in the game South Africa against the Netherlands on March 27, 2014 and was named Man of the Match. Tahir was together with Ahsan Malik from the Netherlands the highest wicket taker of the tournament; both took 12 wickets in the tournament.
In the quarter-final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 between South Africa and Sri Lanka, Tahir helped South Africa to its first knockout victory at the World Cup with a performance of 4:26. At the end of 2015 he was elected to the ICC ODI Team of the Year.
He topped both the ODI and T20I bowler rankings in February 2017 and was named T20I Cricketer of the Year at Cricket South Africa's annual awards three months later. In August 2017 he was called up to a World XI team to play three Twenty20 International games against Pakistan at the Independence Cup 2017 in Lahore.
Cricket World Cup 2019
In April 2019 he was appointed to the South Africa squad for the 2019 World Cricket Championship. He played in the opening game of the tournament against hosts England. At the age of 40 years and 64 days, Tahir became the oldest cricketer in South Africa to appear in a World Cup game. He bowled the opening of the tournament, making him the first weirdo to bow the first ball in a World Cup match. Tahir also took the first wicket of the World Cup, sacking Englishman Jonny Bairstow for a duck. In South Africa's next game at the World Cup against Bangladesh, Tahir played in his 100th ODI. Tahir withdrew from the game after playing his team's final group game against Australia with teammate JP Duminy.
In November 2020, Tahir was nominated for the ICC Men's T20I Cricketer of the Decade Award.
