Saurashtra batsman Sheldon Jackson hilariously trolled back a senior Indian journalist who considered him as an overseas player while having discussions of Kolkata Knight Riders’ playing eleven in the upcoming IPL 2021.
Jackson has been a prolific run-scorer in domestic cricket over the years. He has impressed the KKR franchise; he’s been with the franchise since 2015, and was once again bought by them in last month’s mega-auction for 60 lakh. However, he’s played in just 4 matches for KKR so far.
But is likely to get more opportunities this season considering he’s their premier Indian wicket-keeper; Sam Billings is the other keeping option.
Jackson averages 50 in 79 first-class matches and 37 in 67 List-A games. Despite this, not one but two senior Indian journalists, speaking on the Sports Tak YouTube show, thought of Sheldon Jackson as an overseas player when they were pondering over KKR’s playing eleven.
Here watch the video:
This is height of comedy! The so called cricket experts on #SportsTak are continuously calling Sheldon Jackson a foreign player. Shame! pic.twitter.com/aNTPEbh3xX
— راغب रागीब (@dr_raghib) March 22, 2022
This ignorance and the lack of knowledge from such veteran sports journalists enraged the fans on social media who went calling them out furiously.
Sheldon Jackson, though, dealt with this calmly and had a classy response to this. He retweeted a post in which Saurashtra’s map is shown along with a terrific statistic that hailed his batting: only veteran India batsman Cheteshwar Pujara has more Ranji Trophy hundreds than Sheldon Jackson among Saurashtra-born cricketers.
— Sheldon Jackson (@ShelJackson27) March 23, 2022
Fans loved this response from the 35-year-old and lauded him for his funny reply.
Seeing the outrage by fans, one member of the Sports Tak panel, Rahul Rawat, gave his clarification that he didn’t mention Jackson was a foreign player, and also apologised for not correcting the ones who believed that Jackson was not Indian.
“Nowhere during this clip or during the entire show did I ever mention #SheldonJackson as a foreign player. My bad I didn’t realise when he got called an overseas entrant. Pls go through the entire show because I am very well aware of Sheldon’s achievements for Indian cricket,” Rahul Rawat explained.
Nowhere during this clip or during the entire show did I ever mention #SheldonJackson as a foreign player. My bad I didn’t realise when he got called an overseas entrant. Pls go through the entire show because I am very well aware of Sheldon’s achievements for Indian cricket. ? https://t.co/W1M5WcUfLz
— Rahul Rawat (@rawatrahul9) March 23, 2022
KKR and CSK, the two finalists last season, will kick-off the IPL 2022 on Saturday.
