2007 was a magnificent year for Sohail Tanvir. The left-arm pacer, renowned for his wrong-footed action, has fond memories of life nearly 13 years back.
He made heads turned with his outstanding performances in the inaugural edition of the T20 World Cup in South Africa. Tanvir's six wickets and an economy of only 7.00 across six innings were instrumental to Pakistan's runners-up finish.
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On the back of that campaign, Tanvir made his ODI debut against South Africa just a month later. But what made that season truly special was the fact that Tanvir realised the ultimate dream of playing Test cricket when he was selected as a replacement to face India in an away series and made his debut in Delhi.
"Initially I wasn’t a part of the squad. I was part of the ODIs. Umar Gul got injured accidentally. The way I got Dravid out on my debut, I still remember it was the ball of my life," said Tanvir in a YouTube show called ‘Cric Cast’.
"I remember Wasim Akram had once dismissed Dravid - with the same length, the same line, the same delivery. The ball swung from left stump and clipped off the off-stump. It was my dream delivery."
Tanvir also went on to take the wickets of Sourav Ganguly and Harbhajan Singh in his spell of 3/83. In a low-scoring encounter and only result of that three-match series, the most-recent between the two neighbouring countries, India won by six wickets, with Anil Kumble being awarded 'Man-of-the-Match' for his spells of 4/38 and 3/68.
For Tanvir, however, there are only sweet memories of that game, as he got the opportunity to bowl to that famed Indian batting line-up.
"Bowling against the greats like Dravid, Sachin, Laxman, and Ganguly especially in India was remarkable. These are the guys that have made thousands of runs in Test cricket. They have (been) so many achievements," he said.
"Especially if you talk about Rahul Dravid, he was called the 'wall'. Breaking through his defence was very hard, being a youngster, and especially it being a surprise call since I wasn’t prepared for the Test side at the time."
"My self-belief and confidence has helped me throughout my career. I bowled well in the first Test. I took three back-to-back wickets. I got Ganguly, Dravid and Harbhajan Singh out. I got our side back into that Test," he added.
Painfully for Tanvir, his Test career lasted only one more game on that trip in Kolkata.
"Unfortunately my Test career ended there. That was very unfortunate. Even when I think about it today, I think I could have played a lot more Tests for Pakistan. People call me a T20 specialist and white-ball cricketer but nobody knows about my strengths."
"They don’t know what I am capable of with the red-ball. If you look at my stats or ask people I have played against, you can get an idea. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get many chances," he concluded.
(Inputs from HT)
