Mumbai Indians’ Harmanpreet Kaur delved into the details of her switching to jersey number seven from her usual 84. Harman, who has missed the last two games of her side due to injury, opened up on changing her jersey number from 84.

“I think No. 7 has been lucky for the IPL and I hope that luck continues in the WPL too. It was my number when I played in school; I always used to get that. My Indian team jersey number was different, but I just thought that I’d like it more if I could continue with the number I used in school. So, one day, I just took the numbers back,” she said.

Recently, she changed her Indian jersey number too, from 84 to 7, with the one-off Tests against England in 2023.

But apart from Harman, other players have worn the jersey number seven and made it popular in cricket.

MS Dhoni

There is no bigger ambassador of jersey number seven than the former India captain and current Chennai Super Kings leader in the Indian Premier League – MS Dhoni. Dhoni made it so iconic that BCCI retired the jersey, meaning that no male cricketers would be able to wear jersey number seven for India anymore. As a captain, Dhoni won every trophy that was there to be won in his tenure, including the ODI and T20 World Cups, Champions Trophy, and the Test Mace.

Stephen Fleming

After Dhoni comes the coach of Dhoni, New Zealand’s best skipper Stephen Fleming. The Kiwi left-handed batter was one of the most successful captains of the New Zealand team. He captained the side in a record 303 matches across Tests and ODIs and is only behind Ricky Ponting and MS Dhoni. He also scored 15,289 runs in international cricket across all formats.

Shaun Pollock

Without any doubt, one of the finest exponents of the new ball, South Africa’s Shaun Pollock is one of the greatest number seven players as well. Pollock, coming from a great cricketing family, did not harm the name as he was brilliant in all formats of the game. With 3,728 runs and 411 wickets, he was probably the best bowling all-rounder in the longest format.

In ODIs, he had 393 wickets to his name and more than 3,000 runs once again, a rare double which only five players have been able to get to so far. What is more rare is the feat that Pollock got more than 3,000 runs and 300 wickets in both Tests and ODIs; he is the only one to achieve that feat.

Ian Bell

Another number seven who has done exceedingly well in international cricket is Ian Bell of England. Brilliant in Test cricket, Bell hit 22 centuries and 46 fifties to get a total of 7,727 runs. Even after getting three fifties in his last 11 innings in Tests, Bell did not get to play anymore after 2015 when he was just 33 and a half years old.

The classy batter continued to play First-Class and List-A cricket, amassing a total of 34,360 runs in professional cricket between 1999 and 2020.

Javagal Srinath

Another famous cricketer to wear the number seven jersey is India’s Javagal Srinath. The Karnataka pacer is one of the best to have bowled with the new ball. Srinath played 67 Tests and 229 ODIs for India, picking a total of 551 international wickets in his 12-year career.

First Published: Mar 03 2024 | 11:48 PM IST