Pakistan pacer Sohail Khan is among the limelight since yesterday for a viral video of his presence in Nadir Ali Podcast. A 104-second video reveals Khan’s involvement in a sledging episode with former India captain Virat Kohli.
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It all had happened during the fourth match of ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 at the Adelaide Oval. First match of the tournament for both India and Pakistan, it had been witness to India posting a winning total of 300/7 in 50 overs after the then captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni had won the toss and chose to bat.
Although Khan doesn’t specify the exact time of the match when the incident took place, he claimed that the then Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq and Dhoni were also involved especially with respect to calming him and Kohli respectively.
Considering how Dhoni had replaced Kohli after he became the third Indian batter to be dismissed in the 46th over, the incident could have happened right after Kohli edged a Khan delivery to the then Pakistan wicket-keeper Umar Akmal. Alternatively, the only other possibility of an incident involving these four names on the given day could have happened during the fag end of the Pakistani innings.
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“Beta, jab aap U-19 khele the na, toh us time tera baap Test cricketer tha [Son, your father was a Test cricketer when you were playing at the U-19 level], Khan professes to have said to Kohli after he accused him of non-stop chatter despite being a rookie cricketer.
According to Khan, Misbah scolded him for saying unnecessary things. Dhoni, meanwhile, asked Kohli to move aside as per Khan. “Virat Kohli, side pe ho jao. Yeh purana chawal hai [Move aside. He’s an experienced campaigner],” Dhoni allegedly said to Kohli.
Sohail Khan vs Virat Kohli head to head record in international cricket
It is worth mentioning that Khan had first played international cricket in 2008 – a few days before the start of ICC U-19 World Cup 2008 (which India won under Kohli). As far as his Test debut is concerned, the first of Khan’s nine Test matches had been played a year later (Kohli had already played five ODIs till then).
Furthermore, Kohli wasn’t entirely wrong in terming Khan as a rookie player in 2015. Before the India-Pakistan match that year, Khan had played all of 10 international matches across formats as compared to Kohli’s 211 matches.
As far as the head-to-head record between the two players is concerned, Khan and Kohli faced each other only once in international cricket primarily due to the former playing only one (out of a total of 27 international matches) match against India till now.
Khan, whose solitary ODI five-wicket haul had come against India that day, had dismissed Kohli in their only encounter. Kohli, who had faced 13 balls against Khan, had scored seven runs including a boundary.
Khan, 38, had last played international cricket over half-a-decade ago. However, the right-arm bowler remains an active player in Pakistan’s domestic circuit
