Young left-arm Indian pacer, Chetan Sakariya, has revealed that Pakistani fast bowler, Junaid Khan, is his inspiration, and he tried to emulate Khan’s action when he was young. Sakariya is currently representing Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He took three wickets in last night’s encounter against Punjab Kings.
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Sakariya revealed that he started following Junaid Khan during the 2012 series between Pakistan and India. He specifically recalled Junaid’s spell in Chennai when he picked up figures of 4/43, dismantling a strong Indian top order.
“As a kid, you start idolizing anyone who plays well and is famous. In 2012, when Pakistan came to India, Junaid Khan bowled really well, even though we had players like Virat Kohli, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, and MS Dhoni. But Junaid dismissed them all. So, I became his fan and tried to copy his run-up,” Sakariya said.
Sakariya added that he tried to copy Khan’s action but wasn’t able to copy it completely. He said that although the action might be a bit different, it is modeled after the Pakistani left-arm pacer.
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“If you noticed, he used to take a small jump before approaching the crease. I wanted to bowl just like him but couldn’t copy his entire action. In the attempt to copy his action, my own action got formed. However, I did copy the jump,” he added.
Junaid was the pick of the bowlers in the 2012 series between the arch-rivals, picking up 8 wickets as Pakistan recorded a historic series win in India.
