Laxman, Gambhir open up on rivalry with Pakistan cricketers

Former Indian batsmen Gautam Gambhir and VVS Laxman have opened up on their rivalry with Pakistan cricketers, during their playing days.

While talking on Star Sports show Cricket Connected, the duo talked about their duels with speedster Shoaib Akhtar, off-spinner Saeed Ajmal and all-rounder Shahid Afridi.

"It has to be someone like Shoaib Akhtar. Because he was probably the quickest bowler in world cricket at that time along with Brett Lee. Playing against him was always going to be challenging and he always was up to the fight," said Laxman, when asked about which Pakistan player he enjoyed competing against the most.

Laxman notched up 8,781 runs in 134 Test matches and 2,338 runs in 86 ODIs during his career.

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Responding to the same question, Gambhir said that he always found Ajmal’s Doosra hard to decipher.   

"One battle which I thoroughly enjoyed was against Saeed Ajmal. Because Ajmal was probably one of the toughest off-spinners I have faced, especially under lights as we couldn't pick his Doosra. And the speed with which he used to bowl at, he was very very lethal," said Gambhir.

The former Men in Blue opener also spoke about his rivalry with Afridi, without taking the latter’s name.

"The world knows about that. I absolutely loved it and even now," he concluded.

Gambhir represented India in 58 Tests, 147 (ODIs) and 37 T20Is, while scoring 4154 runs, 5238 runs and 932 runs, in each format, respectively.