Shoaib Akhtar Claims Indian Tail-Enders Begged Him Not To Hit Them
Published - 15 Aug 2020, 05:19 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:33 AM
Former Pakistan speedster was one of the terrifying quick bowlers during his playing days. At the same time, Shoaib Akhtar was equally effective in picking wickets, bowling excellent yorkers, inswingers, and short-pitched deliveries.
The Rawalpindi Express claimed that all these aspects of his bowling made Indian tail-enders requesting him to spare their lives for good.
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Shoaib Akhtar clocked his fastest delivery of 161.3 km/h against England during the 2003 World Cup. The retired speedster had face-offs with several cricketers including Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Virender Sehwag, and Rahul Dravid.
During an interaction with Sawera Pasha on the Youtube show Cric Cast, Akhtar spoke at length how he inflicted fear amongst the opposing batsmen.
Shoaib Akhtar claimed that there were plenty of batsmen, who asked him to bowl at a gentle pace, specifically players from India. According to him, Indian batsmen chose to get out rather than get hit, saying they have wife and kids who would face problems.
“There were lot of batsmen like that. Muralitharan was there, lot of players from India, all tail-enders. They used to ask me to get them out but not hit them as it would hit them hard. They used to say that they have wife and kids and that their parents wouldn’t like it,” Akhtar stated
I had bowled a couple of bouncers to Murali and he told me not to do it else he will die: Shoaib Akhtar
The 44-year old added that his teammate Mohammad Yousuf asked him to fire bouncers on Muttiah Muralitharan since the batsman found it challenging to face him.
Shoaib Akhtar conceded that Murali felt terrified of bouncers and felt shy, but Yousuf incited him to bowl the same.
“Yousuf used to ask me to hit him, to break his fingers as he couldn’t play him. I had bowled a couple of bouncers to Murali and he told me not to do it else he will die. He told that he was very fragile. So I used to feel shy but Yousuf wanted me to hit him,” he added.
