Saina Nehwal claims Jasprit Bumrah can't handle her batting.© X (Twitter)
Young Kolkata Knight Riders batter Angkrish Raghuvanshi recently came under fire for mocking Indian badminton star Saina Nehwal in a now-deleted social media post. Raghuvanshi's statement came after Nehwal claimed that sports like badminton, tennis and basketball are physically more demanding than cricket, while also criticising fans for always preferring the gentleman's game over other sports. In response to her comments, Raghuvanshi had taken a swipe at Nehwal on the social media platform.
In a now-deleted post on X, Raghuvanshi wrote: “Let's see how she fares when Bumrah bowls the 150k bumper at her head.”
In an indirect response to Raghuvanshi's criticism of her, Nehwal now claims that star pacer Jasprit Bumrah cannot handle her batting.
“How do you become Virat at that level? How do you become Rohit Sharma? So many players have to become like them. They can't. Only a few of them are like that. But I just feel it's more of a skill sport. And bowlers, I agree. I'm not going to die there. Why should I even take on Jasprit Bumrah? If I had played for eight years, maybe I would have answered Jasprit Bumrah,” Nehwal said on Shubhankar Mishra's podcast.
“If Jasprit Bumrah plays badminton with me, he may not be able to handle my smash. We should not be fighting with ourselves for these things in our own country. That's what I want to say. Every sport is best in its place. But I also want to say that we should give value to other sports too. Otherwise, where are we going to get sports culture from? And cricket, Bollywood will always be our focus,” the 2012 London Olympics bronze medallist added.
On India's struggle to win medals at the Olympics, Nehwal alleged that players from other sports do not have the same facilities as cricketers.
Meanwhile, Raghuvanshi made his IPL debut in 2024 and had a memorable outing with the bat. In 10 innings, he scored 163 runs at a strike rate of 155.24, helping KKR end their 10-year title drought.
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