On Day 4 of the second Test match between India and England in Visakhapatnam, veteran India fast bowler Zaheer Khan and legendary England batsman Kevin Pietersen got into a lighthearted conversation.
Pietersen recounted the wickets he took in his international career, including the illustrious India captain MS Dhoni, during a luncheon talk.
Remarkably, in the Oval during the third Test match in 2007, the off-spin bowler got rid of Dhoni. Pietersen joked, recalling the episode from the live conversation, saying,
‘You know who else I’ve got in my pocket here? The great Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Right there, there he is next to Kamran Akmal,’ said the England batter on JioCinema.
As Zaheer heard Pietersen’s assertions, he instantly brought up his fights with Yuvraj Singh, who had successfully gotten him out a few times, and joked,
‘You know I met Yuvraj Singh recently and he was talking about Kevin Pietersen being there. I remember him (KP) giving him (Yuvraj) a special nickname as well.’
Pietersen went on to equate his competition with Yuvraj to that of Ben Stokes and Ravichandran Ashwin.
‘Yeah, and he used it as his e-mail ID too for a while. We’ve had some great battles, some beautiful battles on the field and that’s what happens when you play for such a long time. Yuvraj got me a few times (with a laugh). It’s the same thing a guy like Ashwin would do with Ben Stokes when their careers are finished. They will be having a laugh, having a joke like this,’ he added.