Tim David set to become first Singapore international cricketer to play in IPL

The second phase of the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will feature a Singapore cricketer for the first time as Royal Challengers Bangalore has roped in freelance T20 sensation Tim David, who has made a name for himself across leagues in the world.

While he is of Australian descent, the 6-feet-5-inch tall David currently plays international cricket for Singapore and he brings with him a novelty factor in Virat Kohli’s team.

Since the ICC has accorded T20 International status to all of its 106 member nations, David has played 14 T20Is with 558 runs in his kitty at a strike rate of over 158.

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Overall, he has played 49 T20 games, factoring in his appearances in the Big Bash League (BBL) and the Pakistan Super League (PSL) with a tally of 1171 runs at a strike rate of 155 plus.

In the BBL, he has played for Hobart Hurricanes and Perth Scorchers while he had recently scored two List A hundreds in the Royal London Cup for Surrey, including a career-best 140 against Warwickshire.

In fact, the 25-year-old David’s father Rod David is also an ex-Singapore international and represented the country in the 1997 ICC World Cup qualifier, a tournament that was won by Bangladesh.

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While David by birth became a Singapore passport holder, the family migrated back to Australia and he grew up in Perth. His father, apart from being an ex Singapore international, is also an engineer.

It is expected that AB de Villiers and Kyle Jamieson will be certainties in RCB’s playing XI while Daniel Christian also has a good chance of making it. However Kohli will not be able to ignore that David has already hit 77 sixes in senor level competitive 64-white ball games including T20 and List A.

David however is not the first cricketer from an associate nation to play in the IPL as Netherlands’ Ryan ten Doeschate and Dirk Nannes (who also played for Australia) have played for IPL franchises.

The remainder of IPL 2021 will begin on September 19 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).