10 Bizarre cases of mistaken identity in cricket

2. Kenny Burn selected as back-up keeper without any experience as a wicketkeeper

A selection headache occurred to the Australian cricket ahead of their 1890 Ashes series in England. Jack Blackham was Australia’s first-choice wicketkeeper but a lot of talks went on to pick a back-up option to manage Blackham’s workload who was aged 36 by then. When asked about his opinion, Blackham took the name of Tasmania’s Kenny Burn who was not in the suggestions list till then.

The management roped in Kenny on Blackham’s insistence who heard a lot of good things about the Tasmanian. But Kenny Burn left the whole team in dismay once they began the travel to England. Kenny revealed that he never kept wickets in his life and the player Blackham learnt about was James Burn, an elder relative of Kenny. James Burn was past the age of 40 by that time and featured in only one FC match in his career that too in 1868-69.

1. Virat Kohli mistakenly abused a journalist over an article

The 2015 World Cup campaign of India was marred by controversy due to Virat Kohli after big wins against Pakistan and South Africa at the start. Kohli went down to Jasvinder Sidhu, a reporter of Hindustan times and spoke inappropriately and also used cuss words. The reason for Kohli’s outbreak was later revealed to be a case of mistaken identity.

Kohli mistook Jasvinder to have written an article over Kohli and his then girlfriend Anushka Sharma. Realizing the mistake, Virat sent an apology to the HT reporter through a senior journalist. But Jasvinder Sidhu, having not received a direct apology for abuses, went on to report Kohli’s behaviour to the ICC. BCCI stepped into action to calm down the things by releasing a statement over the whole incident.