Stats: Ishant Sharma bags a duck on his 30th birthday

Ishant Sharma celebrated his 30th birthday during the 4th day’s play of the Southampton Test match but wasn’t required to bowl on his birthday as India picked up the last two wickets before he was introduced in the morning. Chasing a target of 245, India were reduced to 22/3 before a 101-run partnership between Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane. The stand between India’s captain and vice-captain almost gave a feeling that the team might not require the birthday boy to toil with the bat.

However, yet another deceive spell of bowling from the off-spinner Moeen Ali had them in tatters for the 2nd time in the match. India went down to 153/7 from 123/3 before Ishant walked out to bat at No.9. The lanky pacer was struck on pads by a skiddy delivery from Ben Stokes on the 5th ball he faced even before he could open his account. Umpire adjudged it out and Ishant didn’t have an option to review either. Thus, he bagged a Test duck on his birthday.

The Delhi player became only the 3rd Indian to bag a duck in Test cricket on birthday. Former wicketkeeper-batsman Syed Kirmani was the first when he returned with a duck in the Kolkata Test in 1978 on his 29th birthday against the West Indies. Venkatapathy Raju also bagged a Test duck in England on his birthday during the 1996 tour. The spinner was dismissed for nought on his 27th birthday at Trent Bridge in Nottingham. Two other Indians have been dismissed for a duck on their birthday in the ODI format.

Dinesh Mongia recorded it in an ODI in 2005 against Pakistan in Delhi while Axar Patel was the most recent during the 2015 Tri-Series in Australia. No Indian player has bagged a duck on birthday in the T20I format thus far. Dinesh Karthik came close when he was dismissed for a nought on the eve of his birthday while playing for World XI this year.

Only Bangladesh’s Tamim Iqbal and Pakistan’s Hasan Ali have bagged ducks in the T20I format on their birthday’s thus far.

Indian players who bagged a duck on birthday in International cricket:

(Stats as on September 2, 2018)

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