Ian Botham

Born on November 24, 1955, Sir Ian Botham is a former England all-rounder who enjoyed an illustrious international career spanning 16 years. After a couple of good seasons for Somerset in domestic cricket, he earned a national call-up. 

He made his ODI debut against the West Indies, which was a forgettable one, with a contribution of 1 and figures of 1/26 in three overs. Botham’s debut in red-ball cricket came in the following year against Australia, wherein he picked a five-wicket haul and scored a useful 25 runs. 

The talented all-rounder hit his maiden Test century in his fourth appearance. Then, he smashed two centuries in the next three innings and also contributed with the ball, thus cementing his place in the team. 

In the 1980 Tour of India, the Cheshire-born scored a hundred and registered his best-ever red-ball figures of 13/106 at Wankhede Stadium. In this pursuit, he also became the first player to score a hundred and pick 10 wickets in the same fixture. 

Botham’s captaincy stint was rather an average one, with no wins in 12 Tests, and could taste success in four out of nine limited-overs matches. 

In July 1982, the talented all-rounder hit his highest Test score of 208 against India at the Oval. 

He completed his Test career with 5200 runs and 383 wickets. On the other hand, Botham garnered 2113 runs and had 145 scalps in the ODIs. 

The first player to achieve a Test double of 5,000 runs and 300 wickets received a knighthood in 2007 and since then has been called ‘Sir Ian Botham’. 

(As of July 2022)