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Ishant Sharma Opens Up On Curse Exchange With 'Guru' Zaheer Khan Back in 2014

image-ljcn5gyqZaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma during 2014 NZ tour (Twitter)

Ishant Sharma made his Test debut in 2007, i.e., during the prime of his senior Indian teammate Zaheer Khan. As the years progressed, Zaheer mentored young Ishant as the two made several overseas Test trips for the Indian team.

As it turns out, the two cricketers are now on equal terms as India’s joint-second most successful fast bowlers. While Khan retired with 311 Test wickets to his name, Sharma equalled the figure during his last Test appearance for India in November 2021.

Even though both have shared a good camaraderie with each other, they were involved in a brief heated exchange during the Wellington Test of 2014, where Team India had squandered their chance of an emphatic series-levelling win against New Zealand.

More than nine years later from that match, Sharma has finally opened up about his alleged fight with his senior bowling teammate.

Sharma says his fight was just frustration

Ishant Sharma recently made an appearance on The Ranveer BeerBiceps Podcast on YouTube. In one of the segments of the podcast, the 34-year-old revealed key details about his heated exchange with Zaheer Khan back during India’s tour of New Zealand in 2014.

He claimed that he never abused the senior-pro, and was merely taking out his own frustration because hosts captain Brendon McCullum was trashing Indian bowlers across all corners of Wellington’s Basin Reserve. Sharma said:

"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."

"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."

During the same interview, the Delhi-based speedster praised Khan and claimed that his former teammate was a better fast bowler than Test cricket’s all-time great James Anderson.