For a 26-year-old, Ishant Sharma has been around for a long time. Since his debut in 2007, Ishant has played 58 Test matches, most of them under the guiding presence of Zaheer Khan. However, in the last two years, he has found himself to be the senior-most member of India’s pace attack.
Ishant doesn’t like to think of himself as someone his young fast bowling colleagues look up to. But he sure has stepped up to the plate on the field and has demonstrated the maturity that one expects from the leader of the pack.
The latest instance was the first day of the Adelaide Test. Varun Aaron and Mohammad Shami, both playing their first Test match on the Australian soil, were handed the new cherry in the morning. David Warner gave them a baptism by fire. He plundered 31 runs off 27 balls against Shami and 46 off 30 against Aaron.
The first six of Warner’s 19 fours came in the first two overs. He was running away with the game with such pace that him getting to his century before lunch seemed like a foregone conclusion at one point.
Then came Ishant to bowl the sixth over. Warner, who was batting on 37 off 20 balls, played out a maiden over. In his next over, Ishant ruffled Chris Rogers up with some sharp, accurate short deliveries. The fifth ball was on the fuller length and was curving away from Rogers. He edged it to Shikhar Dhawan at second slip. India’s lanky leader of pace attack had reinstated sanity in the camp.
Until the late burst of wickets by Aaron and Shami in the last half an hour of play, Ishant was, by far, India’s best bowler. He bowled with control and guile. Such was Ishant’s command over the ball that Warner couldn’t get him away to the fence even once during his momentous 145-run knock. Off 41 balls that Warner faced from Ishant, 27 were dots, and he could muster up mere 16 runs.
In a chat with BCCI.TV, Ishant’s maturity as a bowler shone through, as it did on the field. He spoke about his discipline, control and game awareness. And he assured that his younger colleagues will attain these straits as they gain more experience.
What went wrong with the bowling in the first session?
Initially we didn’t bowl to our plans. Our plan was to bowl close to Warner’s body because he likes it when he gets even a bit of width. We gave him the width and he went for it. By the time we realized it, he had already scored 40-odd runs in the first four overs. Bowling round the wicket was also part of our plan. We wanted to create an angle where the ball would come into the left-hander, but we ended up bowling too wide outside the off-stump.
Talk about Roger’s wicket. Was it a setup?
We watched his videos and found that he is a bit weak when it comes to the short ball. So, I bounced him twice and then pitched one fuller on the off-stump line. He fell for it, came forward and edged it.
Your maturity as a bowler shone right through the day. Is it something you feel too about your bowling?
I am very much aware about my game. When we come up with a plan as a bowling unit, every bowler has a different way of executing it. I think a lot about the plan and try to work around it in the nets in a way it would suit my bowling. All the planning amounts to nothing if you don’t implement it on the field. I was disciplined in the nets and brought that into the match. This whole process has helped me a lot in understanding myself better as a bowler and what I can do.
What were Aaron and Shami going through when Warner was on the attack?
This is their first tour to Australia. They didn’t have any first hand experience of how aggressively the Aussies bat. In England you can get away with a little width because they would still defend it away. But that margin of error is very narrow with the Australians. You give them nominal width and they will put it away. Bowling with the Dukes and the Kookaburra ball also varies the equation. They will learn with experience.
What is the best way to bowl with an old Kookaburra ball?
You have to figure out the batsman’s weakness, form a plan accordingly and keep at it constantly. If you know a batsman likes to play the cover drive, don’t give him that ball and instead make him punch I off the backfoot. And do it consistently. When the wicket or the ball is not helping you, you have to let go off your strength and bowl according to the opposition’s weakness and the game situation.
They did learn from their mistakes today and it was evident in the way they handled the second new ball.
It was. They were much more compact with the second new ball. It was all the more commendable given that the batsmen were just looking to play the day out and were not offering any big shots. Initially, our pacers didn’t expect the wicket to be so slow – in Australia you expect more bounce and pace but that is not the case with this pitch. They figured that out eventually and changed their line of attack accordingly.
For the first time India have four fast bowlers who can bowl at 140-plus consistently. How exciting is it for you to be part of such pace attack?
According to me this is the best fast bowling attack that India will probably have in the near future. I don’t think there is any upcoming bowler in the fray who is capable of bowling 140-plus regularly. Along with pace you also need to have the understanding about your game, body and the ability to adapt and adjust according to the demand of the situation. That will give you more control over the ball. Pace with control is a lethal combination. These things come only with experience and our young pacers will get there soon.
