India’s premier speedster Ishant Sharma has recently revealed that his teammate KL Rahul had once challenged him to score more runs than him in a Test inning, while recalling the latter’s reaction after he hit his maiden Test fifty against West Indies in Jamaica last year.
In a Test match against the West Indies in August last year, Rahul scored 13 in the first innings and then told Ishant that if he were to surpass his score, he would do all kinds of favors for him and luckily, the pacer managed to do so in a style, revealing he was flaunting his chest once back to the dressing room.
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Ishant, who is considered as one of the most reliable tailenders in Test cricket, showcased the glamorous side of his batting in a second Test match against the West Indies last year, hitting an outrageous knock of 57 off 80 balls with seven boundaries to put India into a commanding position.
In that match, Sharma had also shared a partnership of 112 with Hanuma Vihari in Kingston as well as picked up three wickets to help India to win the match by 257 runs against the West Indies.
Recently, during a conversation with Mayank Agarwal for BCCI, Ishant was asked to explain his and India teammates’ reaction after he scored maiden Test fifty, and the pacer revealed that Rahul had joked that the Indian team would have jumped off the balcony if pacer scored a Test century in that match.
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Ishant told Mayank, “Forget everyone’s reaction. Ask KL, how he felt about me scoring a fifty. He said ‘we were thinking if he scores a hundred, we would have to jump off from the balcony’.”
While Mayank asked about the challenge given by Rahul, “KL had given you some challenge, to pass his score. As soon as you passed his score, KL was like ‘aaj Ishi bhai bohot sunaega’.”
To which the Delhi pacer responded, “KL scored some 25-26 runs (he had actually scored 13 runs) and he said ‘son, if you score more than me, I will do this and that for you’.”
He further added, “After I scored a half-century, I gave him some batting advice and he was like ‘Stop it bro, you scored fifty and ab meri jaan kha raha hai (and now you are teasing me). My batting gloves got wet for the 1st time. Rahul gave me a pair of new gloves with which I batted in that innings. He was like ‘I should have batted with these gloves and then I could also have scored a fifty’.”
The 31-year old speedster also revealed he saw Cheteshwar Pujara angry for the first time after miscuing an uncharacteristic uppish cut-shot off Rahkeem Cornwall.
He signed off by saying, “I saw Pujara angry for the first time. He hammered a cut that went straight into the hands of the fielder at point. I saw you angry for the first time’. ‘What do I do yaar, I tried to hit a spinner for a big shot on the green wicket and it went for a catch.”
(With Hindustan Times Inputs)
