"I got my education in T20 bowling from him," Harshal Patel thinks this pacer helped him a lot

Harshal Patel in the Breakfast with Champions show has said that Zaheer Khan was his idol when it came to bowling slower balls.

Koushik BiswasApril 26, 2022 at 11:18 AM2 min read
Harshal Patel in the Breakfast with Champions show has said that Zaheer Khan was his idol when it came to bowling slower balls.

Harshal Patel in the Breakfast with champions show has said one of his former RCB teammates has helped him a lot in his early career.

The medium-pacer was the purple cap holder in the IPL 2021. Since then he has been in great form. Moreover, he was included in the Indian team for his recent performances with the ball. Slower ball is one of his strengths and many believe that he is the best in India when it comes to slower balls.

The medium-pacer from RCB can crank up to higher 130s and also can come down to 110 kmph to deceive the batters with variations. Moreover, he is also one of the bowlers whose slower balls are very tough to read from the hand. Even players like AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli have found it hard to pick his slower from his hands, Harshal mentioned it in the show.

Harshal Patel Praises RCB's Bowling Unit
Harshal Patel in IPL 2012 for RCB. Image - Cricket World

But, when it comes to bowling slower balls, Harshal believes that Zaheer Khan was the master of it. According to him Zaheers' knuckle balls in the 2011 Cricket World Cup were quite extraordinary.

Harshal was in the RCB team in 2012 when Zaheer Khan was also there. He said, "Zak bhai would literally come to me and say what bowl to bowl in every ball. I got my education in T20 bowling from him."

However, Harshal remembers once he had bowled a slower ball to Robin Uthappa despite Zaheer Khan warning him not to bowl one. He was smacked for a six and also got some words from the former India cricketer.

Till now in IPL 2022, Harshal has taken 9 wickets in 7 matches with an economy of 7.42.

Koushik Biswas

Koushik Biswas is the founder and content head of Sportz Point. He has been a sports lover since his childhood, idolising Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan and Lionel Messi. Koushik played cricket for 7 years and has a passion for every sport. His nack for analysing games and talking about sports has helped him create hundreds of content for Sportz Point.

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