“I Used To Wait For Rishabh Pant's Signals,” Avesh Khan Reveals How Pant Helped Him Scalp MS Dhoni’s Wicket

Delhi Capitals (DC) pacer Avesh Khan is on cloud nine after being picked in the reserves for the Indian team for their tour of England where India plays the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) against New Zealand and five Test matches against England.

Avesh Khan had an amazing outing for the DC team in the recent IPL 2021. He was also the only bowler to scalp the wickets of both MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli by clean bowling them in the 14^th edition of the tournament. The youngster started the season in fine form, picking up the scalps of MS Dhoni and Faf du Plessis in his first match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

Rishabh Pant Knew MS Dhoni Would Try To Hit Out- Avesh Khan Reveals How Pant Plotted Dhoni’s Dismissal

In an interaction with the Indian Express after IPL 2021 got indefinitely postponed owing to COVID-19 cases in the bio-bubbles of several teams, Avesh Khan revealed how Rishabh Pant helped him dismiss MS Dhoni.

Avesh Khan dismissed MS Dhoni with just his second ball to the CSK captain. The DC speedster bowled a back-of-a-length delivery outside the off-stump first ball, which MS Dhoni failed to get away. The second delivery was a skiddy one, which kept low, and Dhoni trying to swat it on the leg-side, under-edged it onto his stumps.

“Only a few overs were left, and Pant knew Dhoni would try to hit out. But he also knew that Dhoni was playing after a gap of four months, and it won’t be easy for him. Pant told me to bowl just short of a length. I did just that. Dhoni tried to hit, but got an inside edge and was bowled,” Avesh said.

“Three years ago, I had a chance to take Mahi bhai’s wicket, but somebody had dropped the catch. But now my dream of taking Mahi bhai’s wicket is fulfilled, so I am very happy about it. Since he has not played competitive matches for some time, we had planned to put pressure on him, and because of that pressure I could take his wicket,” Avesh Khan said in a DC press release.

Avesh Khan ended IPL 2021 as the Delhi Capitals’ highest wicket-taker, taking 14 scalps to his name. His economy of 7.7 was one of the best among their fast bowlers.

I Used To Wait For Rishabh Pant’s Signals, Says Avesh Khan

Avesh further disclosed that captain Rishabh Pant, who was leading the Delhi Capitals for the first time in the Indian Premier League, after regular captain Shreyas Iyer was ruled out due to his shoulder injury, helped him by giving him signals from behind the stumps while he was about to begin his runup.

“When I was about to start my bowling run-up, I used to look at Pant. At that momen,t the batsman is watching only me, and not anyone else. So if Pant wants me to bowl a yorker, we have a sign for that. If he wants me to bowl wide outside off, I knew from his sign,” Avesh concluded.

Avesh Khan is part of four standby players- Abhimanyu Easwaran, Arzan Nagwaswalla, and Prasidh Krishna, who will travel to England next month for the World Test Championship Final and the England Test series.

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