England fast bowler Liam Plunkett recalled the “frightening stuff” from his Test debut back in 2005 against Pakistan in Lahore, where he faced world’s one of the most feared pacemen Shoaib Akhtar for the first time at the international stage.
Despite being teammates at Durham in County Cricket, the Pakistani speedster did not take any softness with Plunkett, as Shoaib sent across a threat when they came up against each other in Lahore.
Recalling the interesting incident from his Test debut, Lian has revealed that Akhtar was intimidating to face and threatened to kill him when he walked out to bat as a number nine for England.
In his first Test innings, Plunkett came to bat in the 78th over of the first innings when England was at 249/7 and managed 9 of 51 in a hostile environment in Lahore before finally getting dismissed by Mohammad Sami – it was the third Test of the 2005 Test series between Pakistan and England.
In an interview with The Broken Trophy podcast, Plunkett said: “In county cricket, I was first-change to Shoaib and Harmy. I was at slip for Harmy and leg-slip for Shoaib. I faced Shoaib Akhtar in my first ever Test match. Because I played with Durham before that, I was marking my run-up before the Test and he just smiled and said ‘I’m gonna kill you’ and laughed.”
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He further recalled, “I remember it like it was yesterday because I had my bat, at that time – you think [now] these bats are so thick and stuff – but it was Kashmir willow, it was really thin. And I was sat ready to bat, I was next in, and the TV screen’s right there, so you can see it’s like 96, 97, 96 [miles per hour]. Ashley Giles’ stumps get taken out, and I walk out to a guy who’s bowling 90 miles an hour.”
The English start further revealed that he almost ‘sh** his pants’ after being hit on his shoulder with a bouncer off Akhtar in Lahore Test.
Plunkett signed off by saying, “I remember the first one, it looked like I played it well. You duck and you turn and you can see it travel to the keeper and the keeper catches it. I got my first medal of honor, he hit me on the shoulder. I pretty much s*** my pants at that point.”
(With IANS Inputs)
