Irfan Pathan chooses between Sachin and Virat to bowl at

India’s ousted all-rounder Irfan Pathan was put in an interesting situation to choose a batsman to bowl at if Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli are batting together at the crease. In a recent interview with ESPNCricinfo, Irfan was the guest alongside Australian pacer Shaun Tait.

The left-armer chose Tendulkar over Kohli to bowl at as he believes the latter has the ability to convert his strength into his weakness. Irfan is famous for the in-swingers against the right-handers but he felt that the Indian skipper can improvise and instead of knicking the ball to the keeper, he can complete a neat drive on the on-side.

When the same question was thrown at Shaun Tait, he also picked the Master Blaster to bowl at as he believes that he had a better chance of dismissing the legend during his prime and Kohli has a better defense.

Tait was the bowler who had dismissed Tendulkar in the 2011 ODI World Cup Quarter Final at the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad. The Indian batsman had nicked a quick delivery outside off to the wicketkeeper that had brought the Aussies back into the game. But a gutsy knock from Yuvraj Singh saw India through and the hosts later went on to lift the World Cup.

Kohli approaching Tendulkar

After the retirement of the Mumbaikar, it was believed that no one would ever get close to his daunting batting records. But the way Kohli has been scoring runs in the past few years, increasingly, he has been believed to be the one who can surpass Tendulkar’s record.

The Indian skipper is just 28 years old and has a good 10 years of cricket left ahead of him. He has already notched up 30 centuries in ODI cricket and is 2nd only to the great man who has 49 ODI centuries to his credit.