Kohli told me he was shocked looking at my pace, reveals Mohammad Irfan
Pakistan pacer Mohammad Irfan revealed an incident involving himself and Kohli, where the now-Indian skipper allegedly expressed his disbelief in the left-armer being able to clock 150 kph. Irfan said that Kohli, due to feedback from coaching staff, had initially thought of him as a ‘medium pacer’.
The tallest bowler in the history of the sport, Mohammad Irfan created quite the buzz in world cricket when he broke into the international scene in the early 2010s. A seven-foot monster, such was the bounce Irfan generated off wickets that teams, during practice, were seen sending throwdowns to their batsmen standing on stools that were 3-4 feet long, in order to help them combat the left-armer’s threat. There have been a lot of interesting anecdotes from Irfan’s early career, but, in a chat with broadcaster Sawera Pasha, the 38-year-old spoke about an incident involving himself and the now-Indian skipper Virat Kohli.
It was in Pakistan’s tour of India in 2012-13 that the batsmen of the home side were exposed to Irfan for the first time and the left-armer revealed that upon seeing him bowl for the first time, a lot of Indian players, including Kohli, were left shell-shocked. Irfan said that Kohli told him that the Indian coaching staff had described the left-armer as a ‘medium pacer’ so the players were shocked and surprised to see him clock speeds close to 150kph.
"When I toured India for the first time, the Indian players were telling me that their coaches and support staff had told them that I bowl only at 130-135 kph and not at much speed," Irfan told broadcaster Sawera Pasha on her Youtube chat show ‘Cric Cast’.
"Even Virat Kohli told me that the coaches next to him had said to him that I bowl at 130-135 kph only. It’s just that I am tall and will get some bounce but he will survive easily."
The left-armer revealed that Kohli, in a chat with him, said that he was so taken aback by Irfan’s pace that he first doubted the speed gun, after which he abused a person sitting next to him in the dug-out. As fate had it, Irfan dismissed Kohli in the duo’s first ever H2H meeting, in a T20I at the Chinnaswamy in Bengaluru.
"So when he was sitting with his pads on, he saw that I delivered the first ball at 145-146 kph. So he thought there might be some issue with the speed gun. And then I bowled at 147 kph, so he told me that he asked his coach if he was telling a lie or there was some issue with the speed gun.
"Virat Kohli told this to me face to face. And when I bowled the next one at 148 kph, he told me that he abused the person next to him asking what sort of medium fast bowler I was, as I was bowling at 150 kph."
Now 38, Irfan has largely shifted his focus to playing in T20 leagues across the world. His last appearance for Pakistan came in a T20I against Australia in 2019.
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