Oldest debutants in T20I cricket – there’s a 59-year-old on the list

Jonhenry Wilson 10 Jan 2025

Rahul Dravid was nearing the end of his playing career when T20 cricket was being introduced at international level.

As the SA20 tournament got underway in South Africa on Thursday it was hard not to notice the advanced age of the Joburg Super Kings side. Skippered by the 40-year-old Faf du Plessis it features a host of players on the wrong side of 35.

Experience is certainly something they have available in bucketloads, but youth is alarmingly absent. Aside from Du Plessis, the side also includes players like Imran Tahir (45), David Wiese (39), Moeen Ali (37), Hardus Viljoen (35) and Jonny Bairstow (35).

It all begs the question, when is a player too old? With that in mind, let’s have a look at some of the oldest players to make their international debuts in the shortest form of the game.

1st. Osman Goker (Turkey): 59 years, 181 days

Goker was the oldest ever player to make his T20I debut when he took to the field for Turkey against Romania in 2019. It was curious selection to say the least as Goker was clearly there to make up the numbers. He batted 11 and didn’t bowl (despite the Turks using seven bowlers). He scored a single though, which was his sides’ fifth highest score on the day as Turkey were beaten by 173 runs.

Goker was not an anomaly as the list of oldest T20I debutants features a host of older players from minnow nations. You must go a long way down the list, past nations like Gibraltar, Slovenia, Chile, Botswana, Greece, Cook Islands and Luxembourg before you find a player from a more recognized cricketing nation. Let’s look some of the other older players to make their debuts in T20I.

224th. Rafatullah Mohmand (Pakistan) – 39 years, 20 days

After a career spent on the cusp of selection to the national team, opening batsman Rafatullah Mohmand finally got his chance shortly after his 39th birthday as he won a call-up to face England. In all he played three games for Pakistan, scoring 39 runs and ending with an average of 13.

Also read: 7 times batters were stranded on 99 not out in Test cricket

246th. Rahul Dravid (India) – 38 years, 232 days

Here’s a player who needs no introduction. The Wall spent the bulk of his career playing before the advent of the T20 game. In fairness, his style of play was never going to be ideally suited to the 20 over game, but he got his one and only chance against England in the twilight of his career.

He scored a brisk 31 runs off 21 balls but India was easily beaten by an England side that featured Eoin Morgan, Ravi Bopara and Kevin Pietersen.

354th. Floyd Reifer (West Indies) – 37 years, 10 days

Floyd Reifer’s is a strange story. Something of a cricketing journeyman, Barbados-born Reifer first played for the Windies in Test and ODI cricket in 1997. It was a short-lived stay in international cricket, and he ended up playing in Scotland.

But in 2009, 12 years after his first taste of international cricket he found himself recalled to the Windies side when the bulk of their regular stars went on strike. Not only was he called up, but he was also made given captain, which means that when he played his one and only T20I against Bangladesh at Basseterre in August 2009 he was able to lead a team of relative unknowns to a 5-wicket win.

358th. Sanath Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka) – 36 years, 350 days

Best remembered for his power hitting at the top of the order for Sri Lanka when they won the ODI World Cup in 1996, Jayasuriya was at the end of his career when T20 arrived. he still managed to play 31 times, but he was well past his prime.

Curiously he fared better in T20 with the ball than with the bat. With his slow left armers he was able to claim 19 wickets at an average of just 24. With the bat he averaged 23.29 with a highest score of 88.