‘Can’t Play Barefoot, Asked Zaheer Khan For A Pair Of Shoes’: Ishant Sharma

INDIA pacer Ishant Sharma opened up on his ODI debut and revealed how fellow pacer Zaheer Khan helped him on his first international Test as well as ODI match.

Ishant recalled his ODI debut for India, he was sent alone to Ireland since the rest of the team was already there. He lost his kitbag and stolen cash, partly due to his innocence and limited experience in international travel.

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Ishant revealed he played his debut match wearing Zaheer Khan’s shoes as he lost his cash, Kitbag.

“I was more nervous about the whole travel bit than about a match. Somehow, I made it to Ireland, jet-lagged, only to realize that my kit bag was missing. I knew that stuff gets stolen on the train but I had no idea this could happen on a flight,” Ishant Sharma said on Home of Heroes on JioCinema.

“I slept that night in the clothes I traveled in. I didn’t have my suitcase and my kit bag. I didn’t have any cards back then, so all my money was also there. I never knew what to use between a debit or credit card, so my father just told me to use cash. I didn’t even know I could claim that my kit bag was stolen, so I hadn’t done that,” he added.

“Rahul Dravid told me that I have to debut tomorrow and I responded, ‘But I can’t play barefoot!’ I didn’t even practice. I asked Zak (Zaheer Khan) for a pair of size 11 shoes so I could play the match. He gave me some shoes, but my toe kept hurting, but I didn’t care,” Ishant said on JioCinema.

Ishant further shared his dressing room experience, saying: “The dressing room was overwhelming for me, with stalwarts like Harbhajan Singh, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, and Wasim Jaffer.”