(Cricket news) The recently concluded Test series between India and West Indies saw the reunion of several former Indian teammates such as Ishant Sharma, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha, and others on JioCinema’s expert panel for the presentation. This led to some fascinating conversations when the ex-teammates went live from JioCinema’s commentary box.
One such moment was when Aakash Chopra presented the strikingly similar Test Match Career statistics of fellow commentators Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan during the match. Both players picked up 311 wickets with 11 five-wicket hauls, but Khan played 92 matches compared to Sharma’s 105. This led to the group discussing the curious case of why Khan stopped short of playing 100 Tests for India.
In response, Sharma offered a story about how a dropped catch from Virat Kohli against New Zealand led to Khan jokingly declaring his career was over. “We were playing in New Zealand. Brendon McCullum had scored 300 runs and when Virat Kohli dropped a catch, I remembered that this happened around lunch. Virat said sorry to Zak and Zak said, ‘No worries, we’ll get him out.’ During tea, Kohli said sorry again and Zak told him not to worry. On the third day when Kohli apologized during tea, Zak told him, ‘You’ve ended my career!’
Khan clarified Sharma’s anecdote by revealing he told Kohli about the last time a dropped catch led to a 300-run knock. “I didn’t say that. I said that there were only two players, the first was Kiran More who dropped Graham Gooch and he scored 300. After that, it’s Virat Kohli who dropped a catch and someone scored 300. Then, he told me not to talk like that, naturally as he wouldn’t have felt good about that. The catch was dropped and the runs were scored.”
The group also joked about the likelihood of Kohli being upset with Ishant for bringing this story up, but Ishant was confident that his childhood friend Kohli wouldn’t mind.
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