Sharma’s ton, one of resolve and dedication
NEW DELHI: It was early 2019, and the newly renamed Delhi Capitals were holding a media interaction. Prithvi Shaw, having missed the historic Test series in Australia due to injury, got up after concluding his session when he saw Ishant Sharma had just walked into the hall, posing for photographs. The youngest player in the India set-up, the smallest and perhaps the lightest too, darted across and jumped on Sharma, throwing his hands around the tall man’s shoulders.
The few present froze momentarily at the impudence, but they need not have worried about the country’s seniormost cricketer exploding in anger.
Sharma not only didn’t drop his young teammate, he flashed his patent grin, as if pleading with everyone to see for themselves what he has to go through. It only took a few seconds to realise how much at ease his junior teammates would be with him in the team dressing room.
It would be fitting when Sharma walks on to a spanking new stadium in Ahmedabad for the day-night Test on Wednesday, as the only second India new-ball bowler to play 100 Tests. The only three other active players to the milestone will all be in the England camp.
Sharma is the senior-most after England fast bowler James Anderson. Sharma’s debut in the summer of 2007 was ahead of Stuart Broad by a few months. England skipper Joe Root is the only other active 100-plus man.
Just looking at the numbers— Anderson made his debut in May, 2003 and will be playing his 159th Test. If Broad plays, it will be the 146th since his debut in December, 2007. Sharma, who started off as a teen, has only now hit triple figures, but his longevity without shedding the tag as genuine new-ball bowler is tribute to his unwavering dedication as a subcontinent seamer. The injuries have been many, especially to the ankle that has borne the most agony of landing on hard pitches. His temperament makes Sharma a soldier in cricketing whites. That resolve was needed to bounce back after every injury and dip in form; to keep questions about selection from affecting him.
A succession of skippers and coaches rewarded that dedication in a 14-year career where Sharma has eased into the shock and stock bowling roles, be it with Zaheer Khan as the spearhead when he started or with Jasprit Bumrah since 2018.
The Shaw episode happened in relative privacy. Rohit Sharma recalled a very public episode on Sunday. “We’ve been playing since our U-19 days. We’ve so much to talk about. One thing which makes me laugh even now (is) when I watch that incident with Steve Smith,” he said in a media interaction. “I don’t know whether he was trying to mock him, but it was very funny. I was watching it on Tata Sky, so I kept rewinding it and saw it like 100 times. I still watch it.”
Sharma was contorting his face to unsettle Smith as the hosts pushed for a breakthrough. It left the then Australia skipper laughing. India got him though, going on to win the Test, and eventually the series.
Among his serious achievements stands out the spell of hostile short-pitched bowling, for a career-best 7/74 to help India win the Lord’s Test in 2014. And dismissing Ricky Ponting seven times, especially bowling a nine-over spell to get his man in India’s emotional win at Perth in 2008. Sharma’s early mastery of conventional and reverse swing troubled Ponting, who recalled that phase as he helped Aaron Finch deal with the senior pro on the 2018-19 tour of Australia.
Many Indian pacers have given up early as their body took a toll trying to bowl quick. Zaheer Khan broke down during Tests more than once and had to give up. Even the great Kapil Dev retired after one such injury in his final ODI in 1994. Sharma though has found fresh momentum in the last three seasons, armed with advice from former Australia fast bowler Jason Gillespie during his county stint to become only India’s third pacer to take 300 wickets.