Searles to bring his all-round expertise

ONE OF the longest-serving members of the TKR (Trinbago Knight Riders) family, Javon Searles brings tons of all-round expertise to the table. Time and again, the medium-pacer and middle-lower order batsman has proved handy with his skills.

His incredibly quirky shot over the fine leg fence against Barbados Tridents in 2017 became one of the most-watched clips of the season, and he is back to repping TKR this year, when they set out to defend their title.

Javon Philip Ramon Scantlebury-Searles is known more for his all-round capabilities by his fans, but he spent most of his childhood playing football in Barbados.

In a fun chat with Trinbago Knight Riders's website in 2017, Searles was asked "If you had a time machine, which year would you go back to, and what would you change?" He replied, "I think I would want to go back to the years of playing football, and just keep playing football."

Well as heartwarming as that sounds, we are glad Searles ended up in the cricket arena. Time and again, he has proved his prowess with both bat and ball for Trinbago Knight Riders. He played four matches in his debut season (2018) in the Indian Premier League for Kolkata Knight Riders, chipping in with impressive performances in the limited opportunity he got.

Fun trivia: The first ball Searles faced in the IPL – the last ball of KKR's innings in their away game versus Kings XI Punjab in Indore – he tonked it over the long-on fence for a six!

In Trinbago Knight Riders' title-winning campaign in 2017, Searles picked up seven wickets on the six occasions he was asked to bowl, and showed promise with the bat as a handy finisher.