Ishant Sharma was forced to borrow team-mate Zaheer Khan‘s shoes on his ODI debut in 2007, after his luggage got misplaced in Ireland.

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.

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Ahead of the three-match series in Belfast, Ishant landed in Ireland, only to realise that his luggage was nowhere to be found. “I called up the manager, an hour, two hours passed.

“The manager said, ‘The luggage will directly reach your hotel room’. I was like, ‘Wow, even this facility exists. I didn’t know! In Ranji Trophy, you are your own coolie (porter)!'”

Waiting for his luggage, Ishant made his way to the nets. “Everyone was practising, I was just standing like this (hands folded).”

“Rahul Dravid (came up to me and) asked me, ‘Ishant, why are you not bowling?’ I said: ‘Rahul bhai, I don’t have shoes’. He said ‘What?!’

“I told him my bag never came. I put it on the flight, and it never came. He was like: ‘How can this happen, if you put it on the flight, how did it not come? How are you going to play tomorrow?’

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“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.”

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IndiaIreland Ishant SharmaInternational CricketSeries Editorial