New Zealand pacer Kyle Jamieson has revealed that the Indian skipper, Virat Kohli never asked him to bowl with the Dukes’ balls during his stint with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. The lanky fast bowler who was named Player of the Match in the recently-concluded World Test Championship (WTC) and dismissed Kohli twice in the match, revealed that there no truth behind the story. New Zealand registered an 8-wicket win over in the inaugural WTC in Southampton.
Speaking to Sporting News, Kyle Jamieson said: “No, it wasn’t so much him asking. I think it was Dan (Christian) just sort of adding some stuff for a good story. We were just talking about it at the start of the IPL with the cricket coming up with our UK tour and theirs as well, and I mentioned that I had some Dukes balls. He had some Dukes’ balls as well.”
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He further added, “He just said look at the back end if we want to do some training, we’ll do that, but there was no specificity around me bowing to him or, or giving him a look, but whether he was insinuating something that’s something he could tell you but obviously quite a funny story that’s unfolded.”
The story emerged when Dan Christian, a fellow RCB teammate of Kyle Jamieson and Kohli, said on The Grade Cricketer’s YouTube channel, that Virat had been eager to see how Jamieson made use of the Dukes ball, which was used in the WTC final. Jamieson had claimed Kohli’s wicket during India’s Tour of New Zealand in 2020 which was Jamieson’s maiden Test series.
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On his experience of sharing the dressing room with Virat Kohli in the IPL, Kyle Jamieson said: “He’s a world-class player and just to spend time observing how he operates and how he goes about things both on and off the field was pretty cool and you know it’s nice just to be able to be friendly out in the middle even just having a bit of a laugh and a joke, while the game was going on.”
Kyle Jamieson is currently playing for Surrey in the T20 Blast in England.
