5 Cricketers who played for other countries and then came back

4. Boyd Rankin

A 6 ft 8 inches tall bloke from the County Londonderry region of Northern Ireland, Boyd Rankin is one of the most successful bowlers for Ireland. Initially, a rugby player, Rankin switched to cricket at a very young age. His brute strength and quirky height saw him playing for Ireland at the Under-13 level itself.

It is a common practice for Irish players to play in English County; Rankin too joined fellow Irishmen Ed Joyce and Eoin Morgan at the Middlesex County for the 2004-05 season after an excellent performance in the U-19 World Cup. He played a few games for the second squad but failed to make it to the first team of the county.

Rankin made his debut for Ireland in 2007 against Bermuda in a 6-country cup. He bowled four overs and didn’t pick up a single wicket. Out of the 5 games that were to be played in that tournament, Rankin played just the one against Bermuda. He was later selected to be a part of the Irish World Cup squad. Rankin was a standout performer for Ireland as he picked up 12 wickets for Ireland in the tournament. Meanwhile, Rankin continued to play for Warwickshire in the English County.

After playing 37 ODIs and 15 T20Is, Rankin decided to quit cricket for Ireland in August 2012 and moved to England to play for the nation. He debuted for England in a T20 against New Zealand in 2013 and picked up a wicket for 24 runs. Then came the dilemma. England were to face Ireland in an ODI series and Rankin was drafted into the English squad.

This was supposed to be Rankin’s ODI debut for England. Rankin picked up robust figures of 4 for 46 as England managed to win the match by 6 wickets. His Ashes debut was soon to follow. Rankin played the final match of the 2013-14 Ashes series and picked up just one wicket as England lost absurdly in the series by a margin of 5-0.

Inconsistency and poor performances soon saw the right arm pacer being dropped from the English squad. After playing 1 Test, 7 ODIs and 2 T20Is for England, Rankin decided that it was time for him to go back to his roots. Rankin quit England cricket and came back to Ireland in 2015 to continue his international career with his homeland. Since his return, Rankin has appeared in 13 ODIs for Ireland in which he has picked up 27 wickets.

He was also a part of the Irish squad for the historic Test match against England.  England were bowled out for a mere 85 in the first innings but came back stronger in the second innings, scoring 303 runs and winning the game by 143 runs. He is only the third bowler after Kepler Wessels and John Tracois in the history of the game to have played Test matches for two nations.