Arjun Nair (born 12 April 1998) is an Australian

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er. He is of Indian descent. Nair is an

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are cons ...

who bats in right hand and bowls right arm off-spin.

Early life and education

Nair was born on 12 April 1998 in

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

, Australia to parents of Indian descent who moved to Australia from Tripunithura,

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

. He graduated from Patrician Brothers' College, Blacktown in 2015.

Career

Nair started playing cricket at the age of three, with formal coaching starting at the age of four under Coach Ganesh. Displaying early talent, he was playing under-10s cricket by the age of six. At 13, Nair commenced playing Grade cricket and progressed to First Grade cricket at 15, making him the youngest player of Indian background to compete in Sydney's First Grade and the ninth youngest in its 120-year history. Nair, a right-hand top-order batsman and off-spin bowler, had notable achievements in Australian junior cricket by the age of 17. He was a standout performer in the 2015 All Schools Under-19 championship, scoring five centuries in the Green Shield championship. His performance in the Green Shield championship included an aggregate of 996 runs from 21 matches. Additionally, he took a six-wicket haul in the Under-19 National Championship in Adelaide, earning him the player of the final award. Nair's consistent performance in junior cricket led to several accolades, including the Rising Star and Sports Person of the Year awards from Patrician Brothers College, and the Sports Person of the Year 2013 from Richmond. He was also named the Sports Person of the Year in the 2012 Wenty Leagues. His performance earned him selection in the Australian Under-19 team for the junior Ashes series in the UK, where he debuted with a four-wicket spell against England. Nair was selected in National Performance Squad of Australia when he was 19 years old. He made his first-class debut for

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

in February 2016 in the 2015–16 Sheffield Shield against

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

at International Sports Stadium,

Coffs Harbour Coffs Harbour, locally nicknamed Coffs, is a coastal city on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane. It is one of the largest urban centres on the North Coast, with a population of 78,759 a ...

. Later, he became part of the

Sydney Thunder The Sydney Thunder is an Australian franchise professional cricket team, competing in Australia's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition, the Big Bash League. Along with the Sydney Sixers, the Thunder is the successor to the Speed Blitz Blues, ...

squad in the

Big Bash League The Big Bash League (BBL), also known as the KFC Big Bash League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in Australia. Established in 2011 by Cricket Australia, the Big Bash League replaced the previous competitio ...

. He made his

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

(T20) debut for Sydney Thunder in the 2016–17 Big Bash League season on 22 December 2016. In 2018, Nair was banned for bowling for three months due to illegal bowling action.

References

External links

* 1998 births Living people Australian cricketers Cricketers from New South Wales New South Wales cricketers Cricketers from the Australian Capital Territory Sydney Thunder cricketers Cricket Australia XI cricketers Australian sportspeople of Indian descent Australian people of Malayali descent People educated at Patrician Brothers' College, Blacktown 21st-century Australian sportsmen {{Australia-cricket-bio-1990s-stub