Zaheer Khan has responded to a story told by Ishant Sharma about an incident between Khan and Kohli. According to Sharma, after Kohli dropped a catch from Brendan McCullum in a Test match in 2014, Khan told Kohli jokingly that he had ended the Delhi fast bowler’s career. Khan has stated that he never said anything like that. The story, which went into details about Khan and Kohli’s supposed interactions following the dropped catch, was amusing to fans of Indian cricket as a part of the mythology around the now-famous match.
Also Read: BCCI rests Mohammed Siraj for ODI series against West Indies - Reports
In that game, India was in a comfortable position and was looking to equalise the series. However, it ended up being the Brendan McCullum show, as the New Zealand batter scored 300 runs to secure a draw. In the end, India lost that Test series 1-0, and many still wonder what could have been had Kohli not dropped that catch. According to Sharma, Kohli apologized profusely in the days that followed. Allegedly, Khan was relaxed about the dropped catch and over tea when Kohli apologised once again, he jokingly said that he had ended Sharma’s career.
Khan denied the comment, saying, “I didn’t say that. I said that there were only two players, the first was Kiran More once dropped Graham Gooch and he scored 300. After that, it’s Virat Kohli who dropped a catch and someone scored 300. Then, he told me not to talk like that, naturally as he wouldn’t have felt good about that. The catch was dropped and the runs were scored.”
Also Read: Mithali Raj slams Harmanpreet Kaur's poor conduct against Bangladesh
After sharing the anecdote during a JioCinema expert panel, Sharma also joked with Zaheer that Virat Kohli would be upset about them re-telling the anecdote around that game, which ended with a score of 680/8d. The group also discussed several other topics, including the number of test games played by Khan. Khan played 92 tests against Sharma’s 105, though, interestingly, both took 311 wickets with 11 five-wicket hauls each. They discussed the circumstances around Khan not reaching 100 test caps for India.
