Irfan Pathan
Irfan Pathan (Credits: Twitter)

Veteran India allrounder Irfan Pathan has given a fitting reply to Abdul Razzaq after the former Pakistan allrounder made a couple of distasteful remarks about Jasprit Bumrah and Kohli. Both Kohli and Bumrah are arguably the best batsman and bowler across the three formats right now. While Kohli is currently the top-ranked Test and ODI batsman, Bumrah is ranked number one in ODIs and number five in Tests.

No matter where they have played, the two have rarely failed to deliver. Irrespective of the formats and conditions, Bumrah and Kohli have shone the brightest more often than not. But Razzaq is perhaps not convinced with the duo’s abilities as he took shots at both of them.

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While he called Bumrah a ‘baby bowler’, he said Kohli is a consistent batsman but cannot be put in the same category as Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar. He backed his claim by saying that there is a dearth of world-class players in modern-day cricket and there is no strength in depth for teams across the world, thus taking a dig at Kohli’s achievements.

“I have played against great bowlers like Glenn McGrath and Wasim Akram, so Bumrah is a baby bowler in front of me and I could have easily dominated and attacked him,”said Razzaq in an interview to Cricket Pakistan while speaking about Bumrah.

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“If Virat Kohli scores, he scores. Yeah, he is a good player for them and is performing consistently, but you cannot place him in the same category as Sachin Tendulkar. He belongs to a different category,” he said about Kohli.

Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah
Virat Kohli with Jasprit Bumrah (Credits – Getty)

Irfan Pathan’s reply to Razzaq:

As fans continue to slam Razzaq on Twitter, Irfan Pathan has also given his take on the matter. The former India allrounder cited his own example and urged Kohli and Bumrah not to pay any heed to Razzaq’s comments. Irfan Pathan had himself faced a similar situation very early in his career when Javed Miandad made a distasteful comments about him.

Pathan was one of the most exciting talents in the world when India visited Pakistan in 2006. But days before the start of the series, Javed Miandad had mocked a then 22-year old Pathan by saying:

“Your Irfan Pathans are in every gully and mohalla(side streets) of Pakistan. We don’t even bother to look at them.”

Pathan had then gone on to make Miandad eat his words by picking up a historic hat-trick in the very first over of the third Test. He is still the only bowler to have picked up a hat-trick in the first over of a match. Recalling that incident, Pathan asked the fans not to ‘pay any heat’ to the latest comments from another ex-Pakistan cricketer, tweeting:

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“Irfan jese bowlers hamari gali gali mein paae jate hay” par jab jab ye galli bowler inke samne khela har baar inki gilliyan nikal ke rakh di. Request to all fans not to pay any heat to those unnecessary over the top statements. Just read and ?…. #bumrah #ViratKohli