 Ishant Sharma - Indian discovery Down Under
10th Mar 2008 22:03 IST
Manish Kumar
In the lanky Ishant Sharma India have finally discovered a bowler who knows his strength lies in bowling fast and he sticks to that.
Ishant delivered the fastest ball ever bowled by an Indian bowler when he clocked 152.6 kph (94.8mph) at Adelaide against Australia on February 17, 2008. Also, in the process, he became first Indian to bowl over 150 kph. He has a high arm delivery action and is able to move the ball in both directions.
The fact that Ishant sticks to his strength of bowling fast is more soothing to the eyes because before him, India have had the case of Munaf Patel who was once touted as the fastest bowler in the country but now is reduced to a mere medium fast bowler.
In May 2007, Ishant was selected in the Test team for the Bangladesh tour and played as a replacement for Munaf. Later on, he was called for the tour of England in July-August 2007.
Ishant got a call back in the team in the 3rd Test Match during Pakistan's tour of India in December 2007 due to injury of India's frontline pacers Zaheer Khan, Rudra Pratap Singh, and S Sreesanth.
On the batting paradise pitch, Ishant toiled hard for cementing and securing his place permanently in the Indian team while picking 5 wickets during the third Test in Bangalore. This performance earned him a place in India's squad for the tour of Australia.
On the Australian tour, Ishant was left out in the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne as India retained their main fast bowlers, Zaheer and RP Singh. However, in January 2008 Ishant was called to represent India once again to replace the injured Zaheer in the second Test at the SCG.
Ishant started the first day of the match strongly and was involved in a controversial decision from Steve Bucknor when Andrew Symonds clearly nicked the ball to keeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni off his bowling but was given not out. He bowled beautifully in the match, however without much luck.
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