Ex-Pakistan Star Recalls His On-Field Spat With Ishant Sharma

Due to government restrictions, these two teams mostly meet in ICC tournaments. When the two sides faced off in 2012-13, former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Kamran Akmal was embroiled in a verbal clash with veteran Indian pacer Ishant Sharma that ended thanks to the intervention of MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina.

During a T20I game in Bengaluru, the two were seen in a heated exchange. In a recent interaction, Akmal revealed the reasons behind the spat.

“Ishant abused me. He said one bad word, in return he received 20. I'm honest here. We had our flight to Ahmedabad next day, there was a T20I match. I, Virat (Kohli), Shoaib Malik, Hafeez were sitting. Somebody asked, what exactly happened between you two. Ishant said after bowling, I just said a bad word to him. Everybody said, you deserved it coming!” Akmal said during a podcast with Roha Nadym for Cricwick.

“It turned out to be serious. But thankfully, Dhoni, the captain cool, then Raina also interfered. They knew who was at fault, so they settled the situation, otherwise it would've been worse. I could've been banned for two matches, penalized for 5 match fees. It was pretty serious,” he added.