Born October 24, 1997, twentyseven
year old Canada-born
Harsh Thaker has long since
cemented his position as a key allrounderfor
the Canadian National
T20I squad. Having made his senior
debut for the Canada national
cricket team in 2018, Thaker now
plays in both white-ball formats,
ODIs as well as T20Is as an allrounder
batting right-handed and
bowling right-arm off spin.
Thaker first represented Canada
at the 2016 Under-19 Cricket World
Cup in Bangladesh. He made his List
A debut for Canada in the 2018–19
Regional Super50 tournament on 3
October 2018.
Prior to his List A debut, he was
named in Canada’s squad for the
2016 Under-19 Cricket World Cup.
In June 2019, he was selected to
play for the Vancouver Knights
franchise team in the 2019 Global
T20 Canada tournament.
In August 2019, Thaker was named
in Canada’s squad for the Regional
Finals of the 2018–19 ICC T20 World
Cup Americas Qualifier tournament
He made his Twenty20 International
(T20I) debut for Canada against the
United States on 25 August 2019 and
just two months later, in September
2019, he was named in Canada’s
squad for the 2019 Malaysia Cricket
World Cup Challenge League A
tournament. The following month,
he was named in Canada’s squad
for the 2019–20 Regional Super50
tournament in the West Indies.In October 2021.
Thaker was named in Canada’s squad for the 2021 ICC Men’s T20
World Cup Americas Qualifier tournament in
Antigua. In February 2022, he was included in
Canada’s squad for the 2022 ICC Men’s T20
World Cup Global Qualifier A tournament in
Oman.
In March 2023, He was named in Canada’s
squad for the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier
Play-off. He made his One Day International
(ODI) debut on 27 March 2023, for Canada,
against Jersey in that tournament.
To date Harsh Thaker has represented
Canada in 23 T20Is. As a right-handed
middle-order batsman he has scored 268
runs from 15 innings at an aveage of 24.36
and with 47 as his highest score.
Thaker’s off-spin bowling has so far produced
19 T20I wickets at an impressive average of
17.26 and an acceptable economy rate of
5.65
Despite having his more than useful bowling
in his armoury, Thaker concedes that his
primary role for the national team is as a
batsman. He has thoroughly enjoyed the
responsibility thrust on him by the team
management of batting in the middle order,
guiding the run scoring progress through the
crucial death overs and ultimately finishing
the innings off. His bowling has taken a
second role with him only being called on
when needed.
For Thaker, batting has always been the
more satisfying of his two roles. He has always
considered himself a batsman ever since he first started
playing cricket. That’s not to say, however, that he
doesn’t also enjoy chipping in with wickets and helping
the team in whatever way he can.
As a consummate teamman, Thaker’s motivation has
always been to help the side win as many games as
possible. His objective, each and every time he steps
onto the playing field, whether it is as a batsman or
bowler, is simply to put the team in a position of strength
and then hopefully finish off games.
As goal-oriented an individual as he has always been,
Thaker has not surprisingly established his personal
milestones for the forthcoming ICC 2024 T20 World Cup.
His admirably lofty ambition is to be Canada’s
best player of the tournament.
Such lofty personal ambitions of Thaker’s
are merely what he views as being required
as part of his personal contribution to the
team’s ultimate collective goal of bringing
Canadian cricket back to being at the top
of the associate world. Thaker firmly believes
that the talent that would be required to do
so consistently already exists. Sufficiently so.
How Thaker fares during T20 World Cup 2024
will definitely be worth watching.