Shamar Joseph fairytale rise continues with IPL deal

The 24-year-old fast bowler has replaced Mark Wood at Lucknow Super Giants having only made his professional debut last February

The fairytale continues for Shamar Joseph, the West Indies quick who ran through Australia for a famous Test win last month.

Joseph, a former security guard who only made his professional debut last February, has been handed an Indian Premier League deal.

The 24-year-old replaces Mark Wood at Lucknow Super Giants.

The move is the latest leap in an extraordinary journey, which began in earnest at the Gabba with a fourth-innings seven-wicket haul to give West Indies their first Test victory on Australian soil in 27 years.

He bowled his side to glory despite a toe injury that forced him to retire hurt while batting; he bowled unchanged from the beginning of his spell until uprooting Josh Hazlewood's off-stump to fabulous scenes and the birth of a phenomenon, whose star has risen rapidly.

^{Joseph's star has skyrocketed in a matter of weeks (Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)}

He was named player of the series for his 13 wickets in two Tests, and West Indies white-ball coach Darren Sammy admitted that he had thrown his name into the ring for the T20 World Cup.

He has since been picked up for a Pakistan Super League gig at Peshawar Zalmi as a partial replacement for Gus Atkinson, while an ILT20 debut was thwarted by the blow to his toe, suffered when Mitchell Starc pinned him with a yorker in Brisbane. All this, despite a T20 career so far spanning two matches and zero wickets.

Joseph joins Lucknow for roughly £285,000, with Wood believed to have been withdrawn for the management of his workload, ahead of the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and United States.

Wood is in India at present, but as part of England's Test squad; he was left out for the second Test after starting the series in Hyderabad.

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