Ishant Sharma reveals ‘Virat Kohli angle’ on why Zaheer Khan didn’t play 100 Tests for India | Cricket News – Times of India
Ishant revealed an interesting story on JioCinema’s expert panel discussion about how a dropped catch by Kohli against New Zealand in the second Test in February 2014 led to Zaheer sarcastically declaring his career was ended.
Notably, Zaheer announced his retirement from international cricket following this match, in which Virat dropped the catch of Brendon McCullum, who went on to score 300 runs. New Zealand then declared their second innings after scoring a mammoth 680/8d in Wellington.
“We were playing in New Zealand. Brendon McCullum had scored 300 runs and when Virat Kohli dropped a catch, I remembered that this happened around lunch. Virat said sorry to Zak and Zak said, ‘No worries, we’ll get him out.’ During tea, Kohli said sorry again and Zak told him not to worry. On the third day when Kohli apologised during tea, Zak told him, ‘You’ve ended my career!’,” Ishant said while sharing the anecdote.
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Zaheer confirmed Ishant’s statement, telling Virat about the last time a dropped catch resulted in a 300-run innings.
They also joked about Kohli being furious with Ishant for bringing up this topic, but Ishant was convinced that his childhood friend Kohli would not mind.
“I didn’t say that. I said that there were only two players, the first was Kiran More who 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,” Zaheer said.
Interestingly, both Ishant and Zaheer took 311 wickets with 11 five-wicket hauls each, but Khan played 92 Tests to Sharma’s 105. This prompted the group to analyse the peculiar instance of Khan’s failure to play 100 Tests for India.
(With inputs from ANI)
