ISHANT SHARMA: A journey of Workhorse to Spearhead

Hello guys, welcome back. We have seen one member of the ‘fierce five’ club. Now let’s move to another talented, 193 cm lean and tall guy of Indian Cricket team. He was first selected for India in May 2007 when India toured Bangladesh and made his Test debut in that same series. Yes, I’m talking about the most experienced player in this club, Ishant Sharma. His big break came when he praised out the Pakistani side on a flat Chinnaswamy pitch which

to taking 5/140 in December 2007. That bowling effort won him a place on India's tour to Australia and from then on there was no looking back for the lanky lad. He is known for long and effective spells. Ishant has a lovely high-arm action and is able to bowl consistently close to the 140 kph mark, which troubled the Aussies when India visited there in 2008. The Aussie captain Ponting was Ishant's bunny as he dismissed him six times in seven Test matches then. Ishant also had the distinction of having delivered the fastest ball ever bowled by an Indian, when he clocked 152.6 km/h (94.8mph) at Adelaide Oval against Australia on February 17, 2008. He has the ability to do Reverse swing with old red ball which also makes him a very important asset of the team that’s why captain used to trust him for a long spell with consistent performance. his bowling career can be roughly divided into three parts – pre-2015 under MS Dhoni’s Captaincy when he picked up 201 wickets in 68 Tests at strike-rate 66.7. Then, 2015-17, when he picked up 39 wickets in 18 Tests at strike-rate 69.7, and 2018-onwards, wherein he has picked up 66 wickets in 17 Tests at strike-rate 42.7. he also missed many tours due to injury issue but he worked on it and now he is a regular part of the team. With two impressive fast bowling partners in Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami to bowl alongside, Ishant no longer had to just bowl obdurate spells and wait for a batsman to err.

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ny times he faced bad times when he was warming up a bench where newcomers Mohd. Shami and Umesh Yadav try to impress the team with their lethal pace. He fought it and worked hard on his weaknesses. For the same, he once stated that ”A lot of people would tell me that I need to increase the pace of my fuller deliveries. No one told me how to do that? It was when I went to play county cricket, Jason Gillespie gave me the solution," said Ishant, who played for Sussex under Gillespie's coaching. Ishant now bowls in short bursts with increased pace and it has happened after he stopped bowling his stock back of length deliveries which were a routine under Dhoni, who used him for long spells. By far Ishant is the most experienced pacer out of the five who have made India proud in the last 2-3 years.

Ishant was also part of the moment when Dhoni lifted ICC Champions Trophy, where he bowled the penultimate over. And he was also part of the team when India registered historical win in “Mecca of Cricket”, Lord’s. Ishant Sharma was the wrecker-in-chief of India’s maiden Pink ball Test win where he claimed 5 wicket haul in firs t innings, and become a man of the series against Bangladesh. Ishant has already seen many ups and downs in the whole career whether its due to injury or bad form or new entrant also, but from the last 2 years he reached a maturity level and there was no looking back after that. He is a very regular and important part of the Indian Test Team.

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