'Making friends with insects' - Zaheer Khan and Mitchell McClenaghan engage in a hilarious banter on Twitter

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is all set to kick-start the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2020) from September 19 in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, with the final to take place on November 10. Ahead of the world’s biggest T20 league, all the IPL franchises along with their players and support staff reached UAE last week.

All the cricketers and staff members are serving a mandatory six-day quarantine period and will be undergoing rounds of COVID-19 tests in their respective hotels and resorts. Many cricketers are finding it hard to spend their time locked in a hotel room without meeting their friends and family physically.

The same is the case with New Zealand pacer and Mumbai Indians player Mitchell McClenaghan who is trying to kill his boredom by being friends with insects and flies in his room. On August 25 (Tuesday), former Indian pace bowler and director of cricket operations of Mumbai Indians, Zaheer Khan had organized a Question and Answer session on twitter.

I met a fly on my balcony today: Mitchell McClenaghan

McClenaghan also jumped into the live Twitter session and posed questions on Zaheer related to the quarantine rules prescribed by the BCCI. Tagging Zaheer, the paceman requested the former cricketer to give him permission for coming out of his hotel room.

McClenaghan tweeted, “Hey @ImZaheer when can I come out of my room please?”.

To this, Zaheer quickly responded saying that he is sending him a fresh copy of the quarantine rule book. “Looks like you have misplaced the quarantine rule book, @Mitch_Savage … I am sending you a fresh one,” Indian veteran replied.

Further, McClenaghan also answered a fan’s query regarding who are his neighbors in the hotel and if he talks to them while standing in his balcony. A Twitterati asked, “Which two players are living on either side of your Room Mitch? And do you talk to them standing in the Balcony?”

Answering the query, the Kiwi cricketer counted all the MI players who are staying around his room and also shared about how he is spending his time by naming the flies present in his balcony.

“I can’t see anyone – although @krunalpandya24 (Krunal Pandya) is 2 floors above me @surya_14kumar (Suryakumar Yadav) 4 floors, and @ImRo45 (Rohit Sharma) a few doors down. I met a fly on my balcony today – I named him Barry,” Mitchell replied.