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When Ishant Sharma Gave 'Savage Delhi Boy' Reply While Comparing With Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli and Ishant Sharma sharing a light-hearted moment in IPL 2024 (AP)Virat Kohli and Ishant Sharma sharing a light-hearted moment in IPL 2024 (AP)

National teammates and IPL rivals Virat Kohli and Ishant Sharma share a great camaraderie with each other. Not only did the two cricketers made their international debuts within a 12-month gap for Team India, they also spent many years together playing domestic cricket for Delhi during their primitive years.

Both Ishant and Kohli also indulged each other in some light-hearted banter during RCB’s home IPL 2024 match against the Delhi Capitals in Bengaluru on May 12. While the game marked a must-win one for both sides in the race for the playoffs, Kohli jokingly mocked the speedster after smacking him for a boundary and a six. Ishant eventually got the last laugh by dismissing the RCB opener later in the same over.

Interestingly, the Delhi Capitals speedster celebrated the moment by briefly blocking Kohli’s exit path, thus igniting much amusement from the departing RCB batter as well as from the commentators.

Celebrating the decade-old friendship of the two cricketers, here at OneCricket, we take a look at an old Ishant Sharma interview where the speedster jokingly played down his own Team India contributions in favor of a praise for Kohli.

When Ishant Sharma played down his contributions

During a friendly interview for Delhi Capitals’ social media, Ishant Sharma was once asked if he is satisfied with his career as a ‘mere bowler’ while his childhood friend Virat Kohli went on to become of the greatest modern-day batters of the game.

Ishant jokingly played down his own contributions, claiming that he has not done much as a bowler either. The speedster, who picked up over 300 Test wickets from 105 matches, said that he is satisfied with his ‘small achievements’.

Having made his international debut in mid-2007, Ishant Sharma has picked up 311 Test wickets from 105 matches at an average of nearly 32. The cricketer is currently levelled with former paceman Zaheer Khan to remain India’s second most successful fast bowler of all time, behind Kapil Dev.