Ishant’s 14-year journey to the elite club
NEW DELHI: Ishant Sharma’s face contorted, flashing emotion from rage to triumph as his full delivery sneaked under the bat of Dan Lawrence, trapping the England batsman leg-before in the Chennai Test on Monday. The 32-year-old fast bowler then broke into a grin, relief and joy etched on the face as teammates converged to celebrate his 300th Test wicket.
The significance of the milestone will not be lost on Indian cricket. For the player, it is reward for a 14-year journey of toil, discipline, sheer steel of not giving up after tough days on the field and overcoming painful injuries, especially in the ankles. For Indian cricket, it is the satisfaction of fulfilled potential.
How difficult has it been to be Ishant Sharma? India have always had batting prodigies and quality spinners, but unearthing natural pacers has been rare. Among the pace tribe, we have a few really skilful ones who could bowl real quick but Ishant probably is the first who can be termed a complete package. He is tall (6 ft, 3 in) and a natural athlete with a rhythmic run-up and fluid high-arm action. It is a description that normally fits an Australian or West Indies fast bowler.
When you burst on to the scene like Ishant did with a dream spell to dismiss Ricky Ponting at Perth in early 2008, you set the benchmark very high. For a country starved of quality pace talent, he raised expectations like only Kapil Dev had before him. Straightaway the Glenn McGrath tag was stuck on him. Ishant was expected to be the strike bowler, making early inroads, providing breakthroughs in tough situations. And the first phase of his career was spent struggling to cope with the scrutiny that chases great talent. The expectations were based on his natural ability. He was still a long way off from understanding what to do in various situations.
Two partnerships stand out in his career: The first with Anil Kumble and then with Jason Gillespie. Now, he is at the peak of his powers in terms of skill and game sense, but he perhaps can never repeat the quality he produced under Kumble’s captaincy. The first glimpse came in the first Test he played under Kumble, the second of his career, against Pakistan at Bengaluru. After a quiet start, he suddenly made everyone sit up and take notice midway through Pakistan’s innings. From 525/6, he ran through Pakistan’s lower order. The last four wickets fell for 12 runs and Ishant finished with a five-wicket haul.
It got the Delhi teenager on the plane to Australia. Before Perth, where he bowled a nine-over spell to finally get Ponting, he had bowled an equally searing spell to Andrew Symonds in the second Test at Sydney. On that tour, six wickets in three Tests was not a true reflection of the quality of his bowling. Kumble knew how to hone Ishant’s talent, probably a bowler understanding another bowler better.
In the first home Test of the 2008-09 series against Australia, also at Bengaluru in Kumble’s last series, Ishant again made an impact with seven wickets.
Injuries dogged him in the first phase of his career. He missed the 2011 World Cup due to ankle surgery. Critics kept pointing to his lack of big wicket hauls in games, but his work ethic and determination to learn and bowl fast won the respect of every coach and captain. Ishant’s real transformation though happened under former Australia pacer, Gillespie, while playing for Sussex in the summer of 2018. Gillespie helped Ishant find the missing link in his bowling. The numbers speak for itself. According to CricViz data, the best phase of his career has come after that—17 wickets in five matches at home at an average of 19.41. Away, he has 45 wickets in 11 matches at 20.22.
“A lot of people would tell me I need to increase the pace of my fuller deliveries,” Ishant later said. “No one told me how to do that. Gillespie told me the solution. He said to increase the pace of fuller deliveries, you don’t just release the ball but hit the deck so that it should hit the knee roll. Earlier, I would put cones during nets. That’s okay for a youngster who wants to get his area right. For someone like me, I need to see where my ball is finishing rather than where it’s pitched,” he said during a Ranji game in New Delhi.
He got better with experience, but it was tough early on. He has fitted into various roles well to help with the team combination. From a strike bowler, he slipped into a support role for Zaheer Khan, and then became the spearhead as Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav took time to develop. Now, he is back to doing a support role in Jasprit Bumrah’s company. He has matured to such an extent that conditions no longer matter. The latest proof came in this Chennai Test. On a lifeless track, he has been the most effective bowler, in a contest that has James Anderson, Bumrah and Jofra Archer.
“It has been quite a rollercoaster life so far. A lot of experiences, I’ve learned a lot about how to bowl in the sub-continent, and what lengths to bowl when we go abroad,” he told the official broadcaster on Monday.
People in the dressing room know it has not been an easy journey. Long-time teammate R Ashwin said: “Ishant is one of the most hardworking cricketers I’ve seen. He has done that for more than one reason, because being that tall itself requires lot of facets to be managed through a career. The Ishant that went to Australia and got Ponting then has gone on so many other tours, had his share of injuries. For a fast bowler to play close to 100 Tests (98 Tests) is not a joke. It is a fantastic achievement. I would really want to see him get to 400 and then 500 Test wickets to sort of set a road map for a lot of Indian fast bowlers.”
I don’t want to make a lot of money or do a lot of work. I want to be content. IQBAL KHAN, Actor
Idon’t get excited about things including birthdays, but I am thankful for all the love,” says Iqbal Khan, who knows his wife, Sneha, is planning a surprise for him. Khan, who turns 40 today, shares that he isn’t into parties or big celebrations. He recalls that birthdays when he was younger were the best.
“A memorable one was when I was five and my mum made samosas, gulab jamuns and rasgullas at home as we weren’t allowed to eat food from restaurants,” he says.
Talking about his life’s philosophy, the Bull of Dalal Street (BODS) actor, divulges, “The one thing I want to accomplish in life is to be carefree and satisfied, irrespective of what happens. I am working towards it. I believe that nothing is in our hands and after 2020, we all know this to be true. I want to do my bit for the world. My goal is not to make a lot of money or do a lot of work but to be content.”
He starred in two web shows – BODS and Crackdown in 2020, which were received well, and was recently seen in a short, Punishment.
Now, Khan is looking forward to the release of a web show he shot for last year and shooting another web show with director Apporva Lakhia. But what he is waiting for is the release of Indoo Ki Jawani (IKJ; 2020) on OTT as he was a part of the film.
“I am waiting for a proper response to the film once it releases on OTT and hopefully will reach a larger audience. It came at a time when cinemas had 50% occupancy and it was the second film that released during Covid times, so to analyse the fate of the film keeping Covid in mind, would be unfair. We will know how people respond to the film on OTT,” he says.
Khan admits that while he is open to doing TV, OTT and films, the practice of labelling actors hasn’t gone yet but it isn’t as bad as it used to be either. “I wouldn’t mind juggling OTT, TV and films,” he concludes.