“Shane Warne made me look like a fool during IPL in 2009” – When Virat Kohli recalled facing Shane Warne early into his career

The great Australian spinner Shane Warne is widely regarded as one of cricket’s all-time greats. The leg spinner died after an apparent heart attack in Thailand last year. Before Warne, no bowler had ever taken more than 700 wickets in a Test match. Off the pitch, the great spinner had quite a colourful personality.

Virat Kohli, the former captain of India, is widely regarded as one of the best batsmen of all time. While they never met on the international stage, Kohli and Warne did square off in the IPL’s early goings. Warne once captained the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League.

Kohli, like many others, was saddened by the news of Warne’s passing. Equally impressed by Kohli was Warne, who once compared him to cricket great Sir Vivian Richards.

Once, Kohli and Sunil Chhetri, captain of the Indian national football team, were having an Instagram live session together. Chhetri posed a thought-provoking query to Kohli during the session. Chhetri quizzed Kohli on which of Warne and former Pakistan captain Waqar Younis he’d rather face if he needed three runs off the final ball to win a match.

What did Virat Kohli say about facing Shane Warne?

Due to his confidence in his ability to score runs off yorkers, Kohli made the easy decision to choose Younis. He said that he had played against Warne in the 2009 IPL and that Warne had given him a lot of problems throughout the competition.

“Firstly, Shane Warne hardly bowled during the death overs and secondly, I would believe in my ability to score off the yorkers bowled by Waqar Younis,” Kohli had said on Instagram live.

“Shane Warne made me look like a fool during IPL in 2009. I played him again in 2011 in Rajasthan, nothing significant happened there. He did not get me out, I did not score many runs against him,” he added.

While facing leg spinners like Adam Zampa, Adil Rashid, etc., Kohli continues to struggle. In international play, leg-spinners have been responsible for 37 of Kohli’s dismissals.

Thus, playing against Warne in his early years would not have been a walk in the park. They played each other twice during IPL 2009, while Royal Challengers Bangalore were in the tournament. It was during one of these games when Warne bowled Kohli.

Four times throughout the IPL season, Kohli faced up against Warne, and in those 28 deliveries, he was only able to score 16 runs at a strike rate of 57.14. In the process, Warne was able to remove Kohli once. It’s fair to say the leg-spinner had more success than the Indian batter in the few games they faced off.

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