The emergence of Lockie Ferguson has been quite a revelation for New Zealand pace battery already brimming with young guns like Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson and Hamish Bennet, to name a few.
Ferguson played a crucial role in New Zealand’s stellar World Cup campaign in 2019 where he picked 21 wickets at 19.47, second only to Aussie paceman Mitchell Starc.
The Auckland-born has already cemented his spot in the limited-overs squad, but he is yet to leave his mark in Test cricket. His Test debut against Australia in 2019 was cut short by a calf strain he endured in the second session of the first day.
He is so lethal to face for a batsman because of his impeccable control in line and length, despite him operating at lightning-quick speed throughout the match.
In his recent interaction with Indranil Basu, Ferguson revealed four batsmen whom he finds challenging to bowl at. He instantly named Rohit Sharma as one of the most challenging opponents on the pitch.
“Good question, there’s quite a few. Rohit, I’ve found him very challenging. With him, if you don’t get him out quickly, he tends to go big. He picks up the length very quickly and where my strengths lie, batters play the wrong shot. He’s a world-class batter,” said Ferguson.
The right-arm pacer further included David Warner, Steve Smith and Indian skipper Virat Kohli in the same league as of Rohit. He said that all these are world-class, and it is soothing to knock the top-order consisting of these swashbuckling batsmen.
“Steve Smith, David Warner, Virat Kohli – these guys are world-class for a reason. They’re always tough to bowl to but it feels good when you knock off the top order and have a chance to bowl to the middle order or the lower order,” added Ferguson.
