For Ehsan Khan, the off-spinner from Hong Kong, the 'main chapter' of his life has already been written. The 33-year-old picked up the wicket of Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the recently-concluded Asia Cup, and he feels that's the highlight of his career.
It was a sight to behold as Khan dismissed the great man for nought, leaving the Indian team in a precarious position. He then sat on his knees and bowed his head to the Dubai International Stadium pitch.
The offie says that getting Dhoni's wicket is something he'll proudly tell his grandson about some day.
“In my dreams, I would often think of dismissing Sachin Tendulkar or MS Dhoni,” he told the Indian Express. “I couldn’t take the wicket of Sachin, but I managed to bag the wicket of Dhoni. This is why I bent down and paid respect (to the pitch).
“If Sachin is god, then Dhoni is the ‘king’ of cricket. I have plans to write a book on my career and when I do, Dhoni will be the main chapter. I shall read it to my grandson because life is like a fairytale now.”
Khan revealed his thought process while bowling the wicket-taking ball to Dhoni. "I tried to use the side-arm action, with a straight-ish seam,” he said. “The Kookaburra ball moves just a bit in the air, it floats through the air and gets drift. One year of hard work paid off at that moment.”
Dhoni wasn't the only big wicket that Khan bagged in that match. He even removed Indian captain Rohit Sharma, putting Hong Kong in a position to cause a massive upset. After the match, Khan made sure to get a picture with both his victims.
To complete the perfect night for Khan, he ended up receiving some encouraging words from Dhoni: "You have a lot of cricket left. Fitness is what you should be looking at."
