Experienced speedster Wayne Parnell has been named as a part of the 15-man squad of South Africa for the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia. In the 7 editions of the prestigious cup so far, South Africa and New Zealand are the only established teams to not have won the cup. South Africa with history against it and its current form not too inspiring (lost a recent series to India 1-2), will need to quickly find a rhythm.

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Who is Wayne Parnell?

Wayne Waleed Parnell is a professional cricketer who plays as an all-rounder for South Africa across all three formats. He was born on July 30, 1989, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa to Vayo Bavuma and Gqueberha. He married businesswoman Aisha Baker in May 2016. He attended high school in his hometown’s Grey High School before moving on to Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University for a course in Human Resource Management.

Parnell is a left-arm medium pacer and a left-handed batsman. He represented South Africa in the 2008 U-19 cricket world cup, finishing as the highest wicket-getter in the event, claiming 18 scalps. Soon after, he made his debut for South Africa on Jan 13, 2009, in the second T20 international encounter against Australia in Brisbane.

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Parnell has thus far played in 118 international matches for South Africa (6 tests, 67 ODIs and 45 T20s) picking up 160 wickets (15, 95, 50) in the process. Most recently he represented South Africa in the second T20 international of a 3-match series at Dr. Bhupen Hazarika stadium, Assam, India. In IPL, he kickstarted his career by representing the then-Delhi Daredevils in 2010 before playing for the Pune Warriors from 2011-13. He returned to the Delhi Daredevils in the 2014 season.

Parnell converted to Islam in 2011 after claiming to have been influenced by Mohammedan principles in his study and added “Waleed” to his name. He also clarified that neither his teammates Hashim Amla and Imran Tahir nor his manager Mohammed Moosajee had any role whatsoever in his religious choice.