The 2022 T20 World Cup is less than three months away and the top teams are sprawling to get their best eleven as many are missing players due to injury or rest. The Australian team has a great chance to become the first team to successfully defend the T20 World Cup as it is being played at their home.
Talking more about the T20 World Cup, the mind goes back to 2007 when MS Dhoni’s young Indian brigade won the inaugural edition in South Africa and scripted history by defeating Pakistan in the final, leading to a boom of T20 cricket in the world.
It has been a long time between the 2007 and 2022 versions of the tournament. However, there are a few cricketers – a short list of it, but still – who featured in the first T20 World Cup and will also play in the 2022 edition -barring injury or surprise axing- also.
Here are 4 such cricketers who played in the 2007 T20 WC and will also turn up in 2022:
Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma was a 20-year-old youngster when he made his T20I debut for India in the 2007 T20 World Cup. He oozed talent and it was on show when he played crucial knocks in two important games – 50* off 40 balls vs South Africa in a must-win encounter and 30* off 16 in the final vs Pakistan.
Now, Sharma is the skipper of the Indian team and huge responsibilities lie on his shoulders when he will lead the side in Australia.
Dinesh Karthik
Dinesh Karthik featured in four matches in the 2007 T20 World Cup and couldn’t do anything remarkable with the bat – 28 runs in 3 innings – but his splendid catch of South African skipper Graeme Smith – flying to his left at slip and taking a one-handed stunner – is memorable.
DK remained in-and-out of the Indian team since then. But now, he has forced his way back into the Indian T20I eleven in the specialist role of a finisher.
A thunderous IPL 2022 season for RCB – where he smashed 330 runs at a strike rate of 183 – saw him return to the national side and has bagged two Man of the Match awards – vs South Africa and West Indies – for his elite finishing, both times saving India’s downfall in the games. Karthik has all but sealed his spot in India’s T20 World Cup side.
Mahmudullah
A batting all-rounder who could hit the ball as hard as any Bangladeshi batsman has ever had and who can also bowl handy off-spin, Mahmudullah is now his country’s T20I skipper.
As a 21-year-old youngster in 2007, Mahmudullah featured in a couple of games then, managing only 17 rubs with the bat and taking two wickets with the ball. Now, the 36-year-old is leading the side and would be hoping to make an upset or two in the big tournament.
Shakib Al Hasan
Shakib Al Hasan played a major part in his side’s only victory at the 2007 T20 WC – vs West Indies – in the game, he took 4 wickets. The left-hander finished with the tournament with 67 runs in 5 innings but bowled well, chipping with 6 wickets while bowling at an economy of 6.82.
Shakib was an emerging player then and has grown leaps and bounds over the years to be hailed as Bangladesh’s greatest ever cricketer, and continues to be one of the premier all-format all-rounders in the world. The 35-year-old will once again be Bangladesh’s biggest hope of pulling a spectacle on the world stage as he did in the 2019 World Cup with sizzling all-round show.
