Triple Birthday Bash

This day is more to be remembered for T20 cricket fans, as three of them were celebrating their birthdays, who all three share in common was their greatness in Limited overs format and also all the three were inconsistent in their career, where one had retired, one was axed and one is still playing cricket for his national side.

April 29, 1979 

                            On this day, the Indian left arm seamer Ashish Nehra was born. He was well known for his inswinging deliveries, particularly those banana swingers which comes into batsman. He made his test debut in 1999 while ODI debut in 2001. He was well known for his top class performance against England in 2003 World Cup, where he rattled the England's batting lineup for picking up 6/23 in 10 overs. On that match, captain Sourav Ganguly made him to bowl continuous spell of 10 overs, by placing 2-3 slips, a gully, a silly point and a short leg, literally creating the atmosphere of test cricket. After that, the major problem is that he is injury prone and also had a major surgery in his arm. He then started to focus on limited overs and played 2011 World Cup, where he played 3 games before missing out the final due to a finger injury, which ruled him out for a year. But, he continued to play both domestic and IPL and due to his great bowling performances for Chennai Super Kings in 2015 IPL season, he was recalled for India's T20I squad and ended up playing 2016 T20 World Cup. Then, he went on to play for a year and at the late end of 2017, in Delhi, he played his last match against New Zealand and announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. One of the top pace bowlers Indian cricket have ever produced but injury prone lead to an inconsistent career.

April 29, 1988

                           Birth of a Jamaican All Rounder " Andre Russell". He was better known for his smacking sixes and picking up wickets at good pace and bounce. He made his test debut (only test in his career till now) in 2010 while his ODI debut and T20I debut came in 2011. He had a great career and a big record of hitting sixes in all around the ground over domestic seasons played all over the world. But, he has been a regular player in both T20I and ODI format. Also, during the time 2015 & 2016, he was regarded as No:1 bowler in T20I format. Many bowlers were feared to bowl to him, as he hits ruthlessly and carries extensive amount of power. He is known as " Muscle Russell ". In ODIs, he played 56 matches, scoring 1034 runs ant picked up 70 wickets, while in T20Is, he played 49 matches, scoring 540 runs and picked up 26 wickets. Many countries were dying to have an all rounder like him, and while West Indies were fortunate to have him. In 2019 IPL, he won Most valuable player of the season award for his blistering performances. In CPL, he scored 2 centuries which both were turned out to be a record for quickest ever scored. He was even better known for his finishing against India in 2016 T20 World Cup semifinal, which resulted in reaching the final of the tournament.

April 29, 1990

                          Birth of a World Cup winning hero. Another all rounder from Tasmania. He is none other than " James Faulkner " from Australian cricket team. He was called as "The Finisher" for his late finishes with the bat and also a great left arm seamer, who is so tricky and handy with his slow back off the hand deliveries. From 2013, hew was in the regular full time squad of Australian cricket team. His best and recognized performances were from 2013 tour of India, where he hit 64 off 29 balls to seal 3rd ODI and also 2nd fastest century by an Australia during the 7th ODI of the same series. He scored 113 off 57 balls. During 2015 World Cup final, he picked up 3 wickets for 38 runs, during a crucial time where after a early strike, New Zealand team fought back strongly, and due to his 3 wickets, again New Zealand team lost its way and which reasoned in their winning of WC. But, since then, his performances were faded slowly and made poor performances, which axed him from the squad and is yet to make a return to the International Squad. Also, he had controversies due to his Instagram Post in 2019.