Lockie Ferguson

Lachlan Hammond Ferguson or otherwise more commonly known as Lockie Ferguson is one of the fastest bowlers in the world. Born on 13th June 1991, Lockie played for Auckland in his first two first-class seasons (2014-16) in New Zealand where he picked up impressive season hauls of 21 wickets and 31 wickets respectively. He got a national call-up into the ODI squad for a series against Australia in December 2016 and he made his international debut.

The Kiwi made a lot of headlines for his brilliant performance in the 2019 Cricket World Cup last year after he took 17 wickets in 7 matches and finished as one of the leading wicket-takers of the tournament. He took wickets in every match, with his best performance (4/37) coming against Afghanistan. Towards the end of the year, he made his Test debut against Australia but went wicketless and it was evident that he was more suited for the shorter format.

He was picked up in the 2019 IPL auction by Kolkata for INR 1.6 crore and was retained for the next three seasons. The speedster has been hitting the 150kph mark regularly. He was bought for INR 10 crore by the Gujarat franchise for their title-winning campaign in 2022 but despite his contributions, he was transferred back to his old side from Kolkata.

In 2023, Ferguson encountered a string of setbacks due to injuries, sidelining him for pivotal segments of the Indian Premier League season with Kolkata and the ODI World Cup with New Zealand. Released ahead of the 2024 Indian Premier League player auction, Bengaluru swiftly secured his services for the 17th edition of the tournament. Ferguson will hope for an injury-free run, aiming to showcase his prowess in the Indian Premier League and make a significant impact in the T20 World Cup later in the year.