"I used to read Dennis Lillee's book 'Art of fast bowling'" Zaheer Khan opens up on his favourite bowler

The razzmatazz of the 3rd edition of the T10 League will kickstart in Abu Dhabi on November 15th. The nine-day tournament that will run from November 15-24, boasts of nine franchises: Kerala Knights, Maratha Arabians, Bangla Tigers, Punjabi Legends, Deccan Gladiators, Delhi Bulls, Northern Warriors, Rajput, and the newly-formed Qalandars.

The 3rd edition is raking headlines due to the plethora of cricketing stars throwing their hat in the ring. While the likes of Shane Watson, Shoaib Malik, Lasith Malinga, two-time T20 World Cup-winning skipper Darren Sammy, Angelo Matthews and the 2019 World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan have already made themselves available for the draft, we might see the Indian flavor spicing up the competition this year.

Former Indian players like Munaf Patel, Praveen Kumar and the biggest of ’em all, the man who spearheaded India’s bowling unit for a decade- Zaheer Khan- will be turning up for this year’s edition of the tournament. The former Indian fast bowler will turn out for Bengal Tigers.

Ahead of the upcoming season, the former Indian fast bowler and a World Cup winner, Zaheer Khan opened up about a lot of things in a candid chat, posted on the official Youtube page of the T10 league League.

Zaheer Khan enjoys challenges

One of them was, naming one batsman from the past he would have loved to bowl at in his prime. Answering the same, he said: “Well! There are so many. I really enjoyed my time bowling to the best batsmen in the world. On their day, Mind you! Anyone can be as destructive as possible. So, it’s important, as a bowler, you focus on the positives but I’ve enjoyed all the challenges.”

Zaheer also talked about his cricketing idols. “Well! Cricketing idol, growing up for me was a lot of bowlers that I used to follow. Alan Donald’s run-up to the crease. I used to read Dennis Lillee’s book which is called ‘Art of fast bowling,” he mentioned.

“When I started playing cricket, I was a very keen reader of that book and I happened to spend some time with Lilee as well. So, he was right up there. I was fortunate enough to spend some time and get some valuable coaching lessons from him.”

The former Indian fast bowler, who claimed 610 wickets across formats, retired from International cricket in 2014.

Watch the video here: