'He'd be up there sledging me now' - Nasser Hussain recalls a famous on-field rivalry with Shane Warne

Australian spin legend Shane Warne’s sudden demise came as a shock for all the fans as well as the cricketing fraternity. Warne was found dead in his hotel room in Thailand on March 4 and he passed away due to a suspected heart attack aged 52.  Meanwhile, one of his fierce rivals on the cricket field but a good friend of it, Nasser Hussain has come forward to offer his last respect to the late leggie.

The former England skipper in his tribute has said that Shane Warne would now be sledging him from up there and at the same time also recalled an incident that dates back to 1999 where the Melbourne cricketer had given him a befitting reply after dismissing him. The cricketer-turned-broadcaster also mentioned that Warne was the stand-in captain in that contest.

Shane gave me a big send-off: Nasser Hussain

“He’d be up there sledging me now, that is for certain. He won’t be smiling, he’d be sledging me,” Hussain said in a video shared by Sky Sports.

“1999, were we? Sydney. Bumble (David Lloyd) was our coach we were absolutely coasting. I was at the crease, Shane was bowling. He was captain, stand-in captain. He was abusing me like he always did. I was saying ‘enjoy your last game, Shane, you’d never captain Australia again’.15 minutes later, I was walking off stumped Gilchrist bowled Warne. Shane gave me a big send-off. I can’t tell you some of the words he said,” he added.

Shane Warne to date remains the second-highest wicket-taker in Test cricket with 708 scalps to his name behind the Sri Lankan spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan (800). At the same time, he is only the second bowler behind Murali to take over 1000 international wickets having bagged 1001.

Apart from the iconic ‘Ball of the Century’ that deceived England batting legend Mike Gatting during the 1993 Ashes Test, Warne had also bamboozled former English opener, Andrew Strauss, twice who failed to break the code of his dream deliveries first at the Edgbaston Test in 2005 and then a year later where he went on to become the Spin King’s 700th Test victim at the Boxing Day Test in MCG during the 2006/07 Ashes series.