The 2nd T20I between India and England has created a buzz for a lot of players from both the sides. Be it Jadeja’s quick fire 46, Rohit’s and Pant’s explosive opening stand or Bhuvneshwar’s steamy bowling.
But the one player who has been in talks right from the start of first innings of India’s batting is Richard Gleeson.
You might be wondering who Richard Gleeson is? How did he come out of the blue and demolished India’s top batting line up?
Who is Richard Gleeson?
Richard James Gleeson is a 34 year old right arm fast medium bowler who made his debut in international cricket for England Cricket Team in 2nd T20I vs India at Edgbaston Stadium, Birmingham. He dismissed Rohit Sharma, Viirat Kohli & Rishab Pant within a span of 4 balls.
Although he made his debut at the age of 34 yet he is not new to T20 cricket as he has a lot of experience under his belt.
He has played in the Big Bash League(BBL) and Bangladesh Premier League(BPL) for Melbourne Renegades and Rangpur Riders, respectively.
Gleeson has a decent experience playing in domestic cricket as well where he made his debut for Northamptonshire in 2016.
His last domestic appearance was in a T20 game in 2022 only against Birmingham Bears.
Richard Gleeson T20I Debut
Richard Gleeson is 34 years old and got his debut cap from Liam Livingstone before the match.
England’s star all-rounder and test cricket captain Ben Stokes said before the start of the match that he was excited to see Gleeson play in his debut T20I match.
England had a lot of expectations from him as he was replacing Tymal Mills in the playing 11 and boy did he stand up to them.
He shot to headlines when he quickly removed India’s top order batsmen: Rohit Sharma – 31(20), Virat Kohli – 1(3) and Rishabh Pant – 26(15) in quick succession to halt India’s hope of posting a daunting score in excess of 190.
Prior to the commencement of the T20 series, Richard while questioned by ESPNcricinfo about bowling to Rohit and Kohli said “They’re all human, at the end of the day”.
Coming to the match, after the top order collapse from Indian batsmen, courtesy Richard Gleeson, India were close to 110 runs in 14 overs. The ship was steadied by Ravindra Jadeja who struck out quick fire 46(29) to guide India’s total to 170-8.
Things came tumbling down for England in the second innings as Bhuvneshwar Kumar got Jason Roy for a golden duck. After that it was all downhill for England and they were never able to steady the ship and got bowled out for 121 in 17 overs.
