Who is Amir Jangoo? 5 interesting facts about West Indies batter who smashed 104* on ODI debut vs Bangladesh
Amir Jangoo grabbed the headlines on Friday, December 13, when he played a match-winning knock for West Indies on his ODI debut. Jangoo scored an unbeaten 104* to help the Men in Maroon chase down a 322-run target against Bangladesh.
Mahmudullah's 84-run knock guided Bangladesh to 321/5 in the first innings. Chasing 322, West Indies slumped to 86/4 in the 15th over when the debutant walked out to bat at number six. He remained not out till the end, scoring 104 runs off 83 balls, smashing six fours and four sixes.
It is pertinent to note that Jangoo played such a brilliant knock under pressure in his first-ever international match. In this listicle now, we will look at five interesting things about the 23-year-old West Indies wicketkeeper-batter.
#1 Amir Jangoo hails from Trinidad
Jangoo was born on July 14, 1997, in St. James in Trinidad. At the time of writing, his age is 27 years and 152 days old. He bats left-handed.
Before making his ODI debut for West Indies, Jangoo represented Trinidad & Tobago and Combined Campuses & Colleges in domestic cricket. Notably, he hit his maiden List-A century on November 9, 2024, against Guyana.
#2 Amir Jangoo has been a part of 2 CPL teams
Despite being a local wicketkeeper-batter, Jangoo hasn't quite been in demand in the Caribbean Premier League. He has played 13 matches in CPL across three seasons, aggregating 149 runs at an average of 13.54 and strike-rate of 80.54.
Jangoo made his CPL debut for the Shah Rukh Khan-owned Trinbago Knight Riders in the 2020 season. However, TKR released him after the campaign. In 2022 and 2023, Jangoo represented the Jamaica Tallawahs.
#3 Amir Jangoo belongs to the same U-19 batch as Shimron Hetmyer and Odean Smith
While the left-hand batter represents Trinidad & Tobago in domestic cricket now, he made his List-A debut against Trinidad & Tobago while playing for West Indies U-19s on January 16, 2015.
Current West Indies stars Shimron Hetmyer, Odean Smith, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Keemo Paul and Alzarri Joseph were a part of the U19 team alongside Jangoo. Trinidad & Tobago won that game by five wickets.
#4 Amir's mother and sister have supported him a lot in his cricketing journey
Jangoo was extremely lucky as he received enormous support from his mother and sister.
Even when he played domestic cricket for Trinidad & Tobago, his mother and sister would come to the stadium to cheer for him. In fact, Amir's coach once mistook them for two female fans who 'stalked' Amir.
#5 Nicholas Pooran played a big role in his turnaround
Amir Jangoo has been playing professional cricket since his teenage days, but he only broke into the West Indies team at the age of 27. One of the major reasons behind his turnaround was the extensive work put in by Trinidad & Tobago's senior Nicholas Pooran.
As per Newsday, Jangoo worked on his batting with Pooran and the team's assistant coach Rayad Emrit. It helped him score big in domestic cricket, eventually leading to a maiden national call-up.