The veteran GT pacer Ishan Sharma recently opened up about his special bond with his childhood friend and the former RCB skipper, Virat Kohli. When the entire cricketing world is celebrating the legendary stature of Kohli, Sharma shared something special about his age-old bond since the age-group cricket with the modern-day great.
Notably, Kohli recently left everyone stunned with his sudden retirement from the Tests, announcing it with an Instagram post. A lot of former cricketers and experts of the game came up with their opinions on Kohli’s retirement and hailed his legacy in the traditional format of the game.
Meanwhile, the veteran pacer Ishant Sharma spoke about the moments he shared with the former India skipper and his Delhi teammate when they used to play together for Delhi.
"For me, he is a childhood friend who shared a room with me" - Ishant Sharma
The 36-year-old also feels that it is the childhood bond that makes it hard for him to treat Kohli as ‘The Virat Kohli’, which he is right now, for the entire cricketing fraternity and the cricket fans.
“He is Virat Kohli for the normal people, I can’t see him like that because we have been playing together since under-17 days. For me, he is a childhood friend who shared a room with me. I remember how we used to contribute 200-250 rupees to have food, and how we saved our travel allowance to take that home. So, he is different for everyone and different with me,” said Ishant Sharma on Star Sports.
“Whenever we meet, we never talk about how many Tests we’ve played and something like that. I never felt like he is ‘Virat Kohli’ and all, for me, he is Cheeku only. I also remember a day when I was sleeping and he kicked me to tell me about my selection in Team India, and I said to him, ‘bro, let me sleep’, then he said again, ‘wake up bro, you’re going to play for India,” Ishant added later.
Here’s the video:
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