Recounting the hilarious incident with opener Mayank Agarwal in the video series Open Nets With Mayank, Ishant spoke about the horror of facing skipper Rahul Dravid as a kit-less 18-year-old to explain why he couldn’t participate in the nets.

“I was actually named for the England Test series (later that year). I wasn’t initially included for the Ireland ODIs (against South Africa). I was chilling at home, without any expectation as a 17-year-old (18). Suddenly, I got a call, summoning me for the one-dayers in Ireland,” Ishant said.

“Then I had to borrow Zaheer’s shoes and play the game. Imagine that.”

Ishant also revealed how the Indian team found it difficult to cope with Belfast’s freezing temperatures.

“It was so cold there! Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa, RP Singh, MS Dhoni — at least six-seven members of the team fell sick with high fever because of the weather change.”