For non-cricketing reasons, Imran Tahir relocated from Pakistan to South Africa. Meanwhile, he continued to play for numerous cricket teams and made his mark on the big stage.
He has the most T20I wickets for South Africa, as well as the most ODI wickets by a South African spinner. He never played a Test match in 2015 and withdrew from one-day internationals after the 2019 ICC World Cup.
In Pakistan, Ramzan and Atiya Tahir had a son named Ran. He is the eldest of two children. On January 20, 2007, Imran married Sumayya Dildar. Gibran is his son’s name.
Records
Domestic or T20 League Records
He has represented a total of eight county teams, which is a new high.
International Records
South Africa became the first team to take seven wickets in an ODI innings.
South Africa’s fastest to 100 ODI wickets (58 matches)
South Africa’s fastest player to 50 T20I wickets
In an ODI, the most economical bowling figures (14 runs in 10 overs)
South Africa is the fourth country in the world to score a hat-trick in one-day internationals.
In the 2014 ICC T20 World Cup, he was tied for second most wickets taken (12 wickets)
South Africa’s oldest player in the ICC One-Day International World Cup (40y 64d in WC 2019)
South Africa’s highest wicket-taker in World Cups (39 wickets)
Awards
Cricket South Africa named him T20I Cricketer of the Year in 2017.
Career
Domestic
Imran, a 16-year-old, earned a place in Pakistan’s U19 squad by featuring in local games and then excelling at selection trials. His domestic career started in 2003, when he played in the County Championship for Middlesex. That was the start of the leg spinner’s long domestic career.
After a few years in Pakistan, he moved to South Africa and started to play for the Lahore Lions. In 2007, he moved his county team to Yorkshire. In the same year, he was a member of the Titans, a South African domestic team. However, in 2008, he switched county teams again and enrolled to play for Hampshire.
He was a member of the staff for six years before returning to Nottinghamshire in 2015. He did, however, spend a year with Warwickshire in 2010 before returning. His successes in South African domestic tournaments for Hampshire and the Dolphins won him a national call-up for South Africa.
Tahir switched county teams once more in 2017, joining Derbyshire. In 2018, he visited Durham, and in 2019, he visited Surrey.
International Career
On the 24th of February, Imran Tahir made his One-Day International debut against the West Indies cricket team in the ICC World Cup 2011. He chose 4/41 and limited them to 222 points. With 7 wickets in hand and 43 balls to spare, the Proteas easily chased down the mark. In the remaining four games of the competition, he took another ten wickets.
On November 9, 2011, he made his Test debut against Australia in Cape Town, nine months later. The Australians scored 284 runs in the first innings, with Tahir failing to pick up a wicket and conceding 35 runs in his 10 overs. Proteas were then all out for 96 runs. They, too, bowled brilliantly, dismissing the Australians for just 47 runs. In the second innings, though, Tahir was not given the opportunity to bowl. With 8 wickets in hand, the home side chased down the total.
In the following 12 months, he did not get enough chances, and his career plummeted even further in November 2012. Tahir bowled 37 overs in two innings in a Test against Australia in Adelaide, returning figures of 0/180 and 0/80. His 0/260 bowling figures are the lowest ever documented in a Test match.
For almost his whole career, he was in and out of the side. He was selected to play for South Africa in the 2014 ICC T20 World Cup. He was the tournament’s joint-highest wicket-taker with Ahsan Malik of the Netherlands, with 21 wickets.
He won a place in the ICC One-Day International World Cup 2015 team. He took 15 wickets in eight games, which was the tournament’s joint-highest total for a spinner. He bowled brilliantly and proved to be the X-factor for the team. In an exciting semi-final versus New Zealand, they were eliminated.
In 2015, Tahir was the second-highest wicket-taker in one-day internationals (highest as a spinner). He was named to the ICC ODI Team of the Year 2015 for his achievements.
He was the top-ranked bowler in both ODIs and T20Is by February 2017. Cricket South Africa named him Cricketer of the Year later that year. After that, he went to Pakistan to play a three-match T20I series with the World XI.
He becomes the oldest South African cricketer to appear in the World Cup in 2019. In the 2019 World Cup, he contributed 11 wickets to his total, making him South Africa’s all-time leading wicket-taker. He has 40 wickets to his credit, led by pacer Allan Donald, who has 36 wickets.
After the 2019 ICC ODI World Cup, Tahir announced his retirement from ODI cricket.
T20 Blast, Ram Slam T20 Challenge, Indian Premier League (IPL), Caribbean Premier League (CPL), Pakistan Super League (PSL), and Mzansi Super League are among the tournaments in which the South African has competed (MSL).
Tahir has represented Hampshire (2008-09 and 2011-14), Warwickshire (2010), Nottinghamshire (2015), Derbyshire (2017), Durham (2018), and Surrey (2019) in the T20 Blast hosted by England. In his career, he has played 86 games and taken 102 wickets. He has a career high of 4/14 with a 6.87 economy. He now has three four-wicket hauls to his name.
Tahir played in the Mzansi Super League with the Nelson Mandela Bay Giants in 2018. He has 21 wickets in 16 innings and is the innings’ fourth-highest wicket-taker.
He has played for the Delhi Daredevils (2014-16), Rising Pune Supergiant (2017), and Chennai Super Kings in the IPL (2018-19). So far, he’s taken 79 wickets in 55 games. His highest figures were 4/12, and he has a notable strike rate of 15.5. This is the highest strike rate among the top 50 wicket-takers in the IPL’s history.
Imran was a member of the Guyana Amazon Warriors in the Caribbean Premier League in 2018 and 2019. In 21 games, he has taken 32 wickets for them. His best numbers are 4/22, with an economy rate of just 5.79.
In 2018, the South African played for the Multan Sultans in the Pakistan Super League. In ten games, he took 13 wickets at an economy rate of 7.24.