Chris Morris

A naturally gifted athlete, Chris Morris is a bowling all-rounder who plays for the South Africa national cricket team. Morris was a late bloomer and made his domestic debut in the 2009/10 season for the North West Dragons.

By the end of 2011/12 season, Morris had established himself as a potent bowler in the domestic circuit, and he finished the 2011 with 21 scalps. Impressive performance earned him a place in the Proteas squad for the T20I series against Zimbabwe, but Morris did not feature in any of the games, but gained valuable knowledge from Allan Donald, who was the South African bowling coach at that time.

Morris played for the Lions in the 2012 Champions League, and he impressed everyone with his variations, and was eventually called-up in the T20I squad to face the Kiwis. He picked up 2 crucial wickets in the match as South Africa won the match convincingly.

Few months later, Morris made his ODI debut in the 2013 Champions Trophy against Pakistan.

The Pretoria born had a decent 2014 international season with the Proteas, but was eventually left out of the 2015 World Cup squad which raised eyebrows and surprised all the cricket fans in South Africa.

The following year, injuries plagued the South African bowling line-up, and as a result Morris was included in the Test squad for the very first time. He made his Test debut against England at Cape Town in 2016, a match where Morris struggled to cope up with the longest format of the game and took a single wicket in two innings. 

In the following one-day series, with South Africa 1-2 down and on a brink of losing the fourth ODI as well, Morris played the innings of his life and hammered England bowlers all around the park and turned the match on its head. He struck 62 of 38 balls to help South Africa level the series.

The pacer was included in the 2016 World T20 squad, and he started off well with a 4-wicket haul against Afghanistan, but struggled to maintain the same form in the other group matches. 

In September 2018, Morris was the leading wicket taker in the Mzansi Super League T20 Tournament, picking up 9 wickets in seven matches.

Morris was not included in the 2019 World Cup squad, but an unfortunate injury to Anrich Nortje ruled him out of the tournament and Morris was brought in as a replacement. The lanky fast bowler was the leading wicket taker for South Africa with 13 dismissals. 

Morris has been the biggest beneficiary from the IPL. During the 2013 season, he was bought by the Chennai Super Kings, and he helped them reach the finals of the tournament, eventually losing to the Mumbai Indians.

He fetched INR  7 crore at the 2016 IPL auctions. Morris achieved his highest score in all formats of T20 during IPL 2016 playing against Gujrat Lions. In 2019, he played an integral role in helping Delhi Capitals qualify for the playoffs. 

For the year 2020, Morris was brought in by Royal Challengers Bangalore for INR 10 crore, and he finished the tournament with 11 wickets to his name.

However, ahead of the 2021 IPL season, Morris was released by the franchise, and was roped in by the Rajasthan Royals for a whopping price of INR 16.25 crore and became the most expensive buy in the history of the Indian Premier League. 

Morris’ all-round abilities make him a potent weapon at the international level. A player of his caliber should have played more international matches. He has the ability to crank up speed and generate a good amount of bounce from a surface and has the knack of turning the game with his all-round abilities. 

(As of March 21)