Kohli told me he was shocked looking at my pace, reveals Mohammad Irfan

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.

"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."

"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."