Former Pakistan pacer Sohail Khan is grabbing the headlines this week with his comments on Indian cricketers.

After taking potshots at Virat Kohli, Sohail created a stir by claiming that Pakistan’s domestic setup is filled with bowlers like Umran Malik, India’s new pace sensation.

“Iske (Umran Malik) jaise toh bohot hain. Domestic cricket bhari padi hai hamaari. (Our domestic setup is filled with bowlers like Umran Malik). When a bowler comes through in our domestic level, he becomes a bonafide bowler. Like Shaheen, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf… these are bowlers who know their stuff. I can give you plenty of names," Sohail said while speaking on The Nadir Ali podcast.

Replying to Sohail Khan’s remarks on Umran Malik, former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan on Saturday (February 4) said such statements are being made to draw attention.

Pathan’s tweeted the same in response to a post that reads, “Pakistani cricketer says Umran Malik jaise humare domestic cricket mein bhare pade hain. Javed Miandad said the same about Irfan Pathan. Phir Irfan ne Pakistan mein ja kar Pakistan ki team ka band bajaya tha. Yaar tum log thoda kam bola karo”.

In reply, Irfan wrote: “Major sahab ese statements de kar inhe attention chahiye. Ignore maariye.”

Talking about the Miandad remark, India was to tour Pakistan in 2004 and before the historic series, there was some kind of a build-up regarding Pathan’s potential to dent the Pakistan batting after his stunning exploits in the preceding tour of Australia.   

Javed Miandad, who was then the coach of Pakistan, mentioned in a press conference that his team need not worry about the left-armer as “bowlers like Irfan Pathan were found in every street of Pakistan.”

Although Irfan did not respond to Miandad’s comment, he let his performance do the talking, returning from the tour with 20 scalps to his name.