I am gonna kill you, said Shoaib Akhtar to Liam Plunkett on his Test debut

A member of England’s victorious 2019 World Cup winning-squad, Liam Plunkett, in an interview, revealed his ‘frightening’ experience of facing the Rawalpindi express aka Shoaib Akhtar for the first time in Tests.

Speaking on the Broken Trophy podcast, Plunkett, who played alongside Akhtar during his county stint with Durham, said the Pakistani pacer showed him no mercy when he made his Test debut against Akhtar in Lahore in 2005.

“In county cricket, I was first-change to Shoaib and Harmy. I was at slip for Harmy and leg-slip for Shoaib. I faced Shoaib Akhtar in my first ever Test match. Because I played with Durham before that, I was marking my run-up before the Test and he just smiled and said ‘I’m gonna kill you’ and laughed.” said Plunkett, reminiscing about the incident.

When it came to actually facing the 90-mile odd deliveries of Shoaib Akhtar in the match, Plunkett added that he remembers it like it was yesterday.

“I remember it like it was yesterday, I was sat ready to bat, I was next in, and the TV screen’s right there, so you can see it’s like 96, 97, 96 [miles per hour]. Ashley Giles’ stumps get taken out, and I walk out to a guy who’s bowling 90 mile an hour.” added Plunkett

Punkett stood up to Shoaib Akhtar's fire

Fortunately, Plunkett was able to stand up to the menacing pace of Shoaib Akhtar as he strung together a defiant knock of nine runs from 51 deliveries. In the end it was former Pakistani pacer Mohammed Sami who took Plunkett’s wicket and not Shoaib Akhtar.

But Akhtar did not let go Plunkett scot-free as he was hit by a vicious bouncer from the fiery pace bowler.

“I got my first medal of honour, he hit me on the shoulder. I pretty much shit my pants at that point.” said Liam Plunkett.

Liam Plunkett played a pivotal role in England’s victory at the World Cup last year but since then he has been sidelined and is not in the scheme of things right now.

Plunkett has represented England in 13 Tests, 89 One-day Internationals (ODIs) and 22 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) while picking up 41 wickets, 135 wickets and 25 wickets in each format of the sport, respectively.