Virat Kohli unequivocally creates headlines every time he has the ball in his hands. Despite Kohli not having a great bowling record unlike batting, his first wicket at the highest level was Kevin Pietersen. Considering the former English batter’s stature, it was certainly a big deal for a young Kohli who was bowling for the first time in a T20I.
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Pietersen, who was dismissed by former India captain MS Dhoni in the first Test of India’s tour of England 2011 at Lord’s before DRS had come to his rescue, was dismissed by Kohli off a wide ball in a one-off T20I at Old Trafford a month later. Since it was a stumping dismissal, the right-handed batter didn’t have any reprieve on this particular occasion.
With England having scored 60/2 in seven overs, Dhoni had handed the ball to Kohli. Wanting to glance a wide down the leg side, all Pietersen did was lose his balance to be stumped brilliantly by Dhoni in spite of him struggling behind the stumps for most part of a disastrous four-match Test series.
Pietersen, who found himself being tagged in a viral video of the same incident, hailed it as an “unplayable delivery” before sarcastically mentioning how Kohli was a better bowler than a batter at the time.
“He was a better bowler than batter then. Unplayable delivery!,” read Pietersen’s response on X (formerly Twitter).
Interestingly, it wasn’t the only time when Pietersen had lost his wicket against a non-specialist Indian bowler. During an IPL 2012 match between Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) and Pune Warriors India the following year, former India captain Sourav Ganguly had also sent Pietersen back to the pavilion before indulging himself in a rare animated celebration.
Kevin Pietersen Has More International Wickets Than Virat Kohli
While Virat Kohli has more T20I wickets than Kevin Pietersen, the latter has dismissed more batters than the former across all formats of international cricket. A chief reason behind the same is how Kohli doesn’t have a single wicket as compared to Pietersen’s 10 in Test cricket.
All in all, Kohli has dismissed eight batters in the 161.5 overs he has bowled for India till date. Just over a couple of weeks after taking Pietersen’s wicket, Kohli had also managed to grab a maiden ODI wicket in the form of former England captain Alastair Cook.
Pietersen, on the other hand, has scalped 18 wickets across 290.1 overs. It is worth of a mention that his first and last international wickets were Indian off-spinners namely Harbhajan Singh and Ravichandran Ashwin respectively.
Pietersen, who also has the distinction of dismissing former Australia captain Michael Clarke in the longest format, had once revealed how he was shocked at being asked to bowl at the legendary Ricky Ponting during the third Ashes 2006 Test in Perth.
