The upcoming Indian all-rounder in the longest format of the game, Akash Deep, has revealed the light moment he shared with the former captain of the side, Virat Kohli, during the second of the two-match Test series against Bangladesh at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur, over a bat, which the latter gifted to the former.
It was the first game of the series at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai when Kohli provided one of his glorious bats to Akash Deep, as the team’s assistant coach Abhishek Nayar also praised his batting and supported the decision to send him over Jasprit Bumrah, as they address the Bihar-born as the team’s ‘upcoming all-rounder.’
In the opening game of the series, the 27-year-old smashed four boundaries for his 17 runs in the first innings before picking up two wickets on his first two deliveries of the game, where both the left-handers Zakir Hasan and Mominul Haque didn’t have an answer to the balls that came angling into them.
“Take it, you wanted a bat, right?”- Akash Deep looks back at Virat Kohli’s words
In the second innings, neither with the bat nor ball, the all-rounder wasn’t needed much, as the home side started with a 280-run victory in the game. At the end of the game, the former Indian batter from Mumbai was asked about the qualities they see in the youngster.
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The veteran also painted the entire picture of how Akash Deep asked Kohli for the bat. Given he was practicing well in the nets and was coming off on the back of a good game with the bat in the Duleep Trophy, the Indian captain was satisfied enough to send him over Bumrah in the batting order.
“Virat gave him the bat, and automatically, he got the form with the bat. But he impressed us a lot in the nets. In the first match, there was a discussion, about if we should send Bumrah or Akash Deep.” Abhishek Nayar explained to the host broadcaster Jio Cinema, at the end of the second Test in Kanpur,
He expressed that the right-hander has been their in-form player, so the pressure was shouldered on him to score a fifty in the lower order of the side.
“But Rohit said to send Akash Deep as he had scored runs in the Duleep Trophy as well. He was our in-form player, and we also put that pressure that, he has to score a fifty in the lower order for the team. With the bat, he could be the upcoming all-rounder.” Nayar narrated.
In the second game of the series, the Bengal player was again lethal with the ball. When India couldn’t grab the first wicket in the first half-an-hour, he came into the attack to find the outside edge of the opener Zakir Hasan into the hands of the gully fielder, Yashasvi Jaiswal, before trapping Shadman Islam before the stumps.
When he came out to bat, the biggest desire from him was to score runs quickly. With the blade of Virat Kohli, Akash Deep nailed Shakib Al Hasan for two sixes in the same over. Later, he dissected how he convinced the Delhi-born of the gift.
“Yes, it was tough. But I don’t know what happened to bhaiya, he suddenly came and said ‘Le, tujhe bat chahiye tha na, le khel‘. So it got easy. Yes, there was pressure, as when I held the bat I told him it was giving the feel of a cover drive. He said don’t do drama, just take it. I asked him if he would take the bat or not, he said no.” He addressed.
He will be back in action for the upcoming three-match Test series against New Zealand from October 16.