Bangladesh speedster Rubel Hossain has stated that his rivalry with Indian skipper Virat Kohli dates back to the time when they both played U-19 cricket at the same time for their respective nations.
Notably, both of them have shared a few heated moments on the field in international cricket from the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.
“I have played against Virat Kohli since our U-19 days. So I have had things going on with him from our U-19 days. During the U-19 days, he used to sledge a lot. Now it may not be that much,” Rubel said during a Facebook Live session with teammates Tamim Iqbal and Taskin Ahmed, as quoted by bdcrictime.com. (via IANS)
“There was a match in South Africa, in a tri-national tournament. He was sledging a lot, abusing our batters. We know how it is,” said Rubel smiling.
“I had an altercation with him and the umpire had to intervene,” he added.
Kohli had famously led India to the ICC U-19 World Cup win in 2008 and has since then gone on to become one of the greats of the modern-day game.
Rubel and Kohli had faced off each other in the 2008 tournament too and India had defeated Bangladesh by 28 runs. Rubel was the fielder who took the catch to dismiss Kohli of the bowling of another U-19 star who made it into the national team Mustafizue Rahman.
(With quotes and inputs from IANS)