While in football, a shirt number chiefly denotes the specific role of a player, in cricket, the jersey number is usually picked solely based on a player’s preference. There are no rules which govern the number a player wears at the back of the jersey. However, usually, no two players from the same team don the same number. In this article, we take a look at six popular cricketers who have donned jersey No.24 in International Cricket.
1) Kevin Pietersen – England
Kevin Pietersen is one of the popular cricketers who wore the Jersey No.24 in International cricket. Born in South Africa, right from his early days while representing a domestic team in his home nation to the last assignment before retirement, KP held on to this number behind his back. Across all formats for England, Pieterson had the number 24 on his jersey.
One of the highest scorers for England, in 2013, he had become the highest run-scorer for his country in all international forms of the game combined. In the famous World T20 win in 2010, he was the Man of the Tournament for England. Apart from this, KP also won plenty of games for England in his illustrious career.
2) Sourav Ganguly – India
Although Sourav Ganguly had used the numbers 1 and 99, eventually, he settled with the jersey number 24. This happened for the 2003 World Cup following the advice of astrologer Sanjay B Jumaani. India reached the finals of that tournament in South Africa under his leadership.
Talking about his impact on the field, with his aggressive leadership, Ganguly changed the dynamics of Indian cricket. He also scored more than 10000 runs in ODI and is one of the very few Indians to have done that.
3) Jacob Oram – New Zealand
Jacob Oram is one of the famous cricketers who wore jersey No.24 in International cricket. A prominent member of the New Zealand cricket setup, the almost two-metre tall cricketer won several games for the Kiwis.
While he scored 1780 runs and picked up 60 wickets in 33 Test games, Oram accumulated 2434 runs and 173 wickets in 160 ODIs. He also played 36 T20Is and represented Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians in initial IPL seasons.
4) Vernon Philander – South Africa
The second fastest to 50 Test wickets ever, a feat that he achieved in just seven games, Vernon Philander is one of the greats when it comes to South African cricket. He collected 224 wickets in 64 Tests at a stunning average of 22.32.
He also played a total of 37 limited-overs games where he donned the No.24 jersey. Across his career, Philander also made important contributions with the bat. After retirement from international cricket, he made the move to the County Championship.
5) Kemar Roach – West Indies
When Kemar Roach burst onto the scene, he reminded everyone of the pace greats of the West Indies. Although he did well initially, he tapered off after an ankle injury. Nevertheless, in recent years, he has returned to form and recently earned a red-ball contract by West Indies.
In the India vs West Indies series in 2019, Kemar Roach was unveiled as the cricketer with jersey number 24. Hence, he also features in this list.
6) Piyush Chawla – India
Although he majorly preferred jersey number 11, Piyush Chawla donned jersey number 24 in his initial days in International cricket. This had a link to his birth date, which is December 24.
Having made his Test debut when 18, it was actually in the limited-overs that Piyush made a mark. He won both the 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 50-over World Cup, thereby entering the rare list of players to have done that. He is also one of the highest wicket-takers in IPL.
