'It was just frustration': Ishant Sharma on allegedly abusing Zaheer Khan back in 2014

Why you're reading this: Ishant Sharma is one of the few cricketers from India to play 100 Test matches for the Indian cricket team. Among the 13, only a handful of players are bowlers and even lesser no. of individuals are pacers. Out of these pacers Ishant Sharma is the only active speedster who has played 100 Tests for India. In a recent appearance on the TRS podcast, Sharma opened up on his alleged banter with one of his former senior teammate.

3 Things You Need To Know

• Zaheer Khan played 92 Tests for India in his career
• Zaheer Khan retired from her international career in 2014
• Ishant Sharma made his international debut in 2007

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'He is literally like guru for me': Ishant Sharma on Zaheer Khan

Ishant Sharma appeared on the latest episode of the TRS podcast and clarified an incident that took place during India’s tour of New Zealand in 2014. During the Wellington Test in 2014, Sharma was seen having a heated exchange with Zaheer Khan. Talking to the host Ranveer, the 34-year-old revealed key details about the incident and clarified that he never abused Zaheer.

“I had told that to myself. To this day, people don’t understand to whom I said that. I have never abused anyone who has dropped a catch. How can say that to Zak? He is literally like guru for me. I have never even thought about saying anything like that,” said Ishant.

“It was just frustration because Brendon McCullum was scoring a lot of runs. There were only three fast bowlers - me, Zak and [Mohammed] Shami. After almost every four overs, we had to bowl again and the wicket was very flat. I was just removing the frustration on myself,” the pacer added.

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Ishant Sharma features in the Top 5 highest wicket-takers list for India in Test Cricket

Ishant has a total of 105 Test appearances under his belt, the last of which came against New Zealand in November 2021. With 311 wickets to his credit, the Delhi pacer is the fifth-highest wicket-taker for India in the red-ball format. Due to the influx of pacers in and around Team India in recent times, the star pacer has not played for India in over a year.