“You know who else I've got in my pocket here?” - Kevin Pietersen, Zaheer Khan in cheeky banter over MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh
England’s Kevin Pietersen and India’s Zaheer Khan engaged in some fun banter during Day 4 of the second India vs England Test in Visakhapatnam, which turned out to be the last day of the game.
Pietersen bragged that he had the great Mahendra Singh Dhoni in his pocket, referring to the fact that he had dismissed the Indian legend in a Test. Zaheer, though, retorted by reminding him of his struggles against Yuvraj Singh’s slow left-arm spin.
Pietersen and Zaheer were doing commentary duties during the second India vs England Test. While they had their fair share of battles during their playing days, their competitive spirit has remained intact post-retirement.
Pietersen had famously dismissed Dhoni for 92 in The Oval Test of 2007 and bragged about the same during a chat with Zaheer, only for the latter to remind KP of his Achilles' heel - Yuvraj the bowler.
Hindustan Times shared details of the conversation between the two, which sounded more like an off-field sledging battle. Below is how the verbal exchange took place.
Pietersen began the conversation by telling Zaheer:
“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.”
The former India pacer swiftly responded:
“You know I met Yuvraj Singh recently, and he was talking about Kevin Pietersen being there.”
The former England captaain quipped that he knew Zaheer was going to say that and candidly admitted:
“Yuvraj got me a few times (laughs).”
Zaheer continued the interesting chat:
“I remember him (Pietersen) giving him (Yuvraj) a special nickname as well.”
Completing the hilarious conversation, the England legend commented:
“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.
"The good thing is you can speak about it and have fun with it. 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.”
It's no secret that Pietersen struggled against Yuvraj’s slow left-arm spin bowling and was dismissed by him a few times.
Kevin Pietersen’s impressive numbers
The 43-year-old Pietersen played 104 Tests, 136 ODIs and 37 T20Is for England, scoring 8,181, 4,440 and 1,176 runs respectively. He averaged 47.28 in the Test format, 40.73 in one-dayers and had a strike rate of 141.51 in T20Is.
He also claimed 10 wickets in Test matches, seven in ODIs and one in the T20I format. The South African-born cricketer could have played a lot more for England but for his involvement in several controversies, which often kept him out of the team.