India left-arm seamer Khaleel Ahmed spoke about improvement in his bowling since he last played for India in 2019 and also responded to former India captain K Srikkanth’s ‘misfit’ remark made that year.
Khaleel was mentored by India pace legend Zaheer Khan at Delhi Capitals and made his India debut in 2018 in the Asia Cup tournament. Overall, he played 11 ODIs and 14 T20Is over a stretch of the next year before falling out of contention. His last appearance was in 2019, in a T20I tie against Bangladesh at home.
After his poor performance in the Bangladesh T20Is, where he conceded 81 runs in two matches for just 2 wickets, Kris Srikkanth criticized his bowling in his column for The Times of India.
He wrote: “Frankly Khaleel Ahmed looks a misfit at this level. There is always scope for improvement, but he has to learn fast.”
However, he had an excellent outing in IPL 2022 for DC, where he picked 16 wickets in 10 matches. However, he was forced to miss a number of domestic matches, including the Ranji Trophy 2022-23 due to a medical condition.
Khaleel Ahmed talked about Kris Srikkanth’s comment on Jio Cinema in a conversation with Aakash Chopra.
"Yes, I saw this somewhere in the media and it obviously hurt me. I thought that I was also a player from India. I was very young and emotional. I saw it as how I could improve myself," he said. "Currently, these things don't matter to me. I have learnt that following the process that you have is the most important. I focus on following a healthy diet and on my practice. I do check what people are saying about me, but it doesn't matter. I laugh it off when it's good, and it's the same even when it's bad,” Khaleel told Chopra on JioCinema.
Khaleel will be part of IPL 2023 for Delhi Capitals. But he mentioned that he has improved significantly as a bowler over the years and is much better than when he had made his India debut.
He spoke about his Indian team chances and said: "I wasn't that good when I played for India. I believe that I'm a much better bowler now, but I'm not in the Indian team. I am 10 times a better bowler than I was when I played for India. I can read the game better, and I can read the batsman better."
