Bangladesh pacer Mohammad Saifuddin recalls living his dream of bowling to Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma

Before India took on Bangladesh in the 40th match of the ICC World Cup last year, the two teams faced each other in one of the practice matches just before the tournament. India and Bangladesh came face-to face in the second warm-up match at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff and taking the crease first, KL Rahul and MS Dhoni knocked centuries to take the total to 350/7.

Bangladesh fast-bowler Mohammad Saifuddin, who had featured in 14 ODIs till then, revealed how he was filled with amazement to have lived his dream of bowling to Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.

“During our practice match at Cardiff, Rohit Sharma was at the striker’s end with Virat Kohli as the non-striker. I told Rohit, ‘it’s been 10 to 12 years since I’ve been watching you guys on TV, both of you are our dream cricketers. Now I’m bowling to you and I don’t know what to do,’” Saifuddin said.

Saifuddin further went on to tell how eager he was to dismiss either Rohit or Virat and gave an account of a hilarious incident vis-a-vis the Indian opener. “Then Rohit laughed at me and said ‘Good luck’. Then I was trying my best to make sure that I got at least one of them out. Luckily, I was able to dismiss Kohli,” Saifuddin said.

“We don’t want to sledge them. We have grown up, seeing them play and we can’t imagine sledging them. Cricket is a gentleman’s game and should remain that way. Also, because there’s demerit points, we have to be careful.”

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