Jersey numbers of the current Indian cricket team and the reasons behind them

Numbers behind the jerseys in cricket were first introduced in the World Cup in 1999. At that time, all the captains wore the number 1 jersey and the rest of the squad alternated numbers between 2 to 15.There was only one exception that South African captain Hansie Cronje retained his usual number 5 with opener Gary Kirsten wearing the number 1 which he had also done previously.The 1995-96 World Series Cup in Australia was the first time when shirt numbers were used in international cricket along with the player’s name. Most players assigned their numbers and some of them getting to choose their own number. Shane Warne wore 23, Ricky Ponting wore 14 and most notably Sachin Tendulkar wore 10.Since then various players have used different numbers while playing international cricket. We saw Chris Gayle using 333 because of his highest score in Test cricket is 333. Former Indian batsman Virender Sehwag didn’t use any shirt number at the end phases of his international career. In the eighth edition of Champions Trophy where India will play their first match against Pakistan, where we will see the Indian team players wearing various shirt numbers. The current Indian team has some players who wear particular numbers due to some interesting reasons. Here is why some current India team players wear particular numbers on field:

#1 Hardik Pandya - No. 228

The new sensation of the Indian cricket team is a fast-bowling all-rounder who is also a big-hitter. He came to the fold in 2016 during the tour of Australia where India whitewashed Australia in the T20I series.

The young all-rounder has kept the number 228 since this happens to be his highest score in an Under-16 tournament organized by the BCCI. He was captaining the Baroda Under-16 side in that match where his team was reeling at 23/4, chasing a 350 plus score. He went on to score a massive 228 in that match and helped Baroda win the match on the basis of first innings lead.