Sunil Narine is arguably the best T20 bowler in the world at the moment. His “mystery” spin has puzzled almost every batsman in the world and no one has been able to get hold of his mystery spin so far.
Here are 10 facts about Sunil Narine that you must know:
1) During his under-19 days, Sunil Narine picked all 10 wickets in an innings, in a trial match in 2006 in Port-of-Spain. Narine bowled overs and took 10 wickets for just 55 runs.
2) Sunil Narine was one of the only three bowlers in the Champions League T20 in 2013 (CLT20) to take 10 or more wickets. This tournament was Narine’s first tournament in front of a big international audience.
3) Sunil Narine made his One Day International (ODI) debut against India and Virat Kohli was his first international wicket. Narine took 2 wickets on his ODI debut at Motera, Ahmedabad in 2011.
4) Sunil Narine was picked by Kolkata Knight Riders in for INR 3.55 crore in the sixth edition of the Indian Premier League. Narine ended up as the second-highest wicket-taker (24 scalps) in that edition of the IPL and helped KKR win their maiden title.
5) Sunil Narine is the star performer of the IPL. In 43 IPL matches, Narine has taken 67 wickets at average of 16 and he picks up a wicket every third over. All this at an economy rate of just 5.7 an over.
6) In 2012, Narine was named ICC’s emerging cricketer of the year. In the same year, he was also named West Indies’ List-A player of the year and T20 cricketer of the year.
7) Although Sunil Narine is only for his spin bowling, he smashed 4 consecutive sixes off Glenn Maxwell’s bowling in an ODI.
8) Sunil Narine’s father named him after the great Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar.
9) Sunil Narine was reported for suspect action in Champions League T20 (2014) and went on to miss the ICC Cricket World Cup .
10) Since his early playing days, Sunil Narine has sported a spiked Mohawk hairstyle.
By Aniket Arora
