India wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel is known for passing cheeky comments on the field. During his first Australia tour in 2003-04, he attempted to sledge the legendary Steve Waugh and also had a bit of tussle with Matthew Hayden.
In a recent interview, Parthiv recalled a sledging episode which he has not talked about much. The incident was from an IPL match in 2016, involving him and former Aussie speedster Mitchell Johnson.
In that IPL season, Parthiv was playing for Mumbai Indians while Johnson was representing Kings XI Punjab.
“One thing I remember I told Mitchell Johnson during an IPL game. I had scored 80 (81 actually) and I’d smashed him all over the park. For the record everytime we’ve played, I’ve smashed him. And he had a lot of words to say to me.
“So when he came down to bat I told him ‘I don’t think you can get me out with your left arm why don’t you try bowling with your right arm, you might get me out with that’,” Parthiv said while speaking on Fan Code’s LockdownButNotOut series.
Meanwhile, Parthiv Patel also revealed his choice between KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant for the wicketkeeper role in India’s white-ball team.
Notably, MS Dhoni is out of competitive cricket after India’s World Cup 2019 campaign. Pant was widely seen as Dhoni's successor until Rahul emerged as a reliable wicketkeeper batsman in the limited-overs formats.
“At this point of time, KL Rahul. I feel Rahul is your short-term thing in a way if you’re thinking of the World Cup. I think he’ll do the job for you during the World Cup, there’s no doubt about it,” he said.
“Rishabh Pant definitely has it in him, there’s no doubt about that. If I put myself into his shoes when I was 17-18, I didn’t have a good series, and going back to domestic cricket for a couple of years helped me a lot. Every time I’ve met Rishabh, I’ve always told him that people are talking about you because you’ve talent in you. If you had no talent and if you weren’t talented, people wouldn’t have been talking about you, so keep that in mind. Sometimes, you have to go back to domestic cricket and just get that form back,” Parthiv explained.
(With IANS inputs)
