The South African cricketer Keshav Athmanand Maharaj was born on February 7, 1990. He is now playing at the professional level. Test matches, one-day internationals (ODI), and twenty-first internationals (T20I) are the three types of cricket matches in which Maharaj competes for the South African national side. Within the context of limited overs cricket, he is presently serving as the vice-captain of the team. In addition, Maharaj is the captain of the Super Giants of Durban in the SA20.
Both a lower-order batsman and a left-arm orthodox spin bowler, he is a former player. His first appearance in a first-class cricket match was in 2006 for KwaZulu-Natal, and he made his debut in a test match for South Africa in November of 2016. He is a member of the Dolphins in domestic cricket and the Super Giants of Durban in South African Twenty20. When South Africa played Sri Lanka in one-day internationals for the first time in September 2021, Maharaj was the captain of the team.
Within the same month, he also made his debut in the Twenty20 International against Sri Lanka, and he also served as captain of the squad in his first encounter. In June 2021, while South Africa was playing West Indies in a test match, Maharaj became the second bowler from South Africa to get a hat-trick in a test match. While playing for KwaZulu-Natal during the 2006–07 season, Maharaj made his debut in the first-class competition at the age of sixteen.
Keshav Maharaj Biography
| Name | Keshav Maharaj |
| Full Name | Keshav Athmanand Maharaj |
| Date of Birth | 7 February 1990 |
| Place of Birth | Durban, South Africa |
| Other Names | NA |
| Nationality | South African |
| Father’s Name | Athmanand Maharaj |
| Mother’s Name | NA |
| Siblings | NA |
| Spouse | Lerisha Munsamy |
| Marriage Date | April 2022 |
| Children | NA |
| Role | Bowling |
| Batting | Right-handed |
| Bowling | Slow left-arm orthodox |
| ODI Debut | 27 May 2017 vs. England |
| Test Debut | 3 November 2016 vs. Australia |
| Favourite Food | NA |
| Favourite Actor | Favorite Colour |
| Favourite Actress | NA |
| Favourite Colour | Blue |
| Retirement | Still Playing |
He was a member of the Dolphins team during the 2009-2010 season. During April and May 2010, Maharaj traveled to Bangladesh with the South Africa A squad. During this trip, he played two four-day matches against the Bangladesh Cricket Board side and took 13 wickets. In one of the Twenty20 matches, he also opened the bowling and got four wickets for twelve runs off of four overs. During the 2010–11 season, he also competed for South Africa A against the Bangladesh A squad that was making a trip.
During the domestic season of 2012–2013, Maharaj had his greatest season with the bat, during which he scored 481 first-class runs at an average of 48.1, including two hundreds. When playing against Northerns, he was successful in scoring 114 runs off of 119 balls and taking five wickets. In 2013, Maharaj was a member of the Cuckfield team that competed in the Sussex Premier League. In 2015, he was Nelson’s professional team and played in the Lancashire League.
Throughout the 2014–15 season, Maharaj achieved his greatest innings and match stats to that date while batting for the Dolphins against the Cape Cobras. He went six for 58 and ten for 145. His performance earned him the title of man of the match, and the Dolphins emerged victorious. The season came to a close with him having taken 44 wickets in first-class cricket at an average of 26.18. The KwaZulu-Natal team that competed in the Africa Twenty20 Cup in 2015 had him on their roster.
When Maharaj was playing for the Dolphins against the Warriors in the opening match of the 2016–17 season, he scored 72 runs and then took seven wickets for 89 and six wickets for 68 in an innings win for the Dolphins. This was the first time that he had ever collected seven wickets in an innings or thirteen wickets in a match. In October 2018, Maharaj was selected to be a member of the Durban Heat team that would compete in the first championship of the Mzansi Super League Twenty20 competition.
Batting & Fielding Stats
| YEAR | MAT | NO | RUNS | HS | AVG | BF | SR | 100 | 50 | 4S | 6S | CT | ST |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Career | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1.00 | 2 | 50.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2024 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1.00 | 2 | 50.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Bowling
| YEAR | MAT | BALLS | RUNS | WKTS | BBM | AVE | ECON | SR | 4W | 5W |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Career | 2 | 36 | 39 | 2 | 2/23 | 19.50 | 6.50 | 18.00 | 0 | 0 |
| 2024 | 2 | 36 | 39 | 2 | 2/23 | 19.50 | 6.50 | 18.00 | 0 | 0 |
After making an appearance for Lancashire in 2018, Maharaj participated in five matches for Yorkshire in the 2019 County Championship. He took 38 wickets at an average of 18.92, which contributed to the team’s fifth-place finish. The Durban Heat club that will compete in the 2019 Mzansi Super League championship added Maharaj to their roster in September of this year. The KwaZulu-Natal team announced his inclusion in their roster in April 2021, well in advance of the 2021–22 cricket season in South Africa.
He joined Middlesex on an overseas registration on February 27, 2023, to compete in the LV= County Championship and the Vitality t20 Blast tournaments. However, he ended up having to withdraw from the contests owing to an injury to his Achilles tendon. In the first-ever test match against New Zealand, which took place on March 10, 2017, Maharaj earned his first five-wicket haul. It was just the fifth time that a South African spinner has scored five consecutive wickets in a test match against New Zealand.
The selection of Maharaj to South Africa’s One-Day International (ODI) squad for the series against England and the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy took place in April of 2017. On May 27, 2017, he made his only one-day international debut for South Africa against England. At the annual awards ceremony held by Cricket South Africa in May of 2017, Maharaj was honored with the title of International Newcomer of the Year. It was during the first test match against Bangladesh in October 2017 when he collected his fifty-first wicket in a test match.
In July 2018, during the second test match against Sri Lanka, Maharaj recorded his best Test bowling numbers in an innings of 9 for 129. He also recorded the greatest-ever bowling stats in a Test inning by a visiting bowler in Sri Lanka. Both of these accomplishments occurred during the same match. In addition to that, he had the highest bowling stats ever recorded by a South African player during a Test innings in Asia.
His results of 9 for 129 are the greatest Test bowling numbers by a South African since the country’s readmission to international cricket in 1991. His figures are the second-highest bowling figures by a South African in an innings in a Test, behind Hugh Tayfield. With his nine wickets in a test innings, he became the second left-arm spinner in history, following in the footsteps of Rangana Herath.
