Sleepless Ishant keeps India alert, fighting
NEWDELHI: India’s desperation to have Ishant Sharma’s height and experience for the tour of New Zealand was evident when the 6’4” fast bowler was picked in the squad 11 days before his fitness test. This was despite the MRI on his ankle showing two ligament tears and the gap between the fitness test and the start of the first Test in Wellington less than a week.
As soon as the fitness report came out, Ishant flew to Delhi from Bengaluru, where he was undergoing rehab at the National Cricket Academy following the freak injury suffered on January 20 in a Ranji game for Delhi against Vidarbha.
A day later he was on board for a 24-hour flight to New Zealand.
All of this took a toll on his body and the Ishant who took the field at the Basin Reserve was sleep-deprived but put in the effort to lead India’s fightback.
With the pace stock India now possess, this desperation may seem surprising. But such is the value of Ishant’s experience and consistency. Both these qualities came into play on Saturday, the second day of the Wellington Test.
As New Zealand’s leading batting duo Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor passed India’s meagre 165-run total with a 83-run partnership and threatened to flatten the visitors, Ishant, who had removed the openers early, returned to surprise Taylor with extra bounce, breaking the partnership.
India clawed back to reduce the hosts to 216/5 at stumps. Williamson fell for 89, caught off Mohammad Shami.
“Nothing was happening but I was still trying and hoping something would happen from the wicket. I was holding the ball not on the seam (but cross seam), and trying different things because with kookaburra, the seam gets really soft after 40-50 overs. If you hold the ball crossseam, you need to come hard and
hit the length very hard and that’s what happened,” he said, explaining the dismissal of Taylor.
Ishant’s height allowed him to extract bounce from a surface he
believes had ‘tennis-ball bounce’ and no seam movement despite looking green.
“Height matters a lot when you are playing in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa and obviously bounce matters a lot,” he said, joking: “Everywhere you play, they always ask for tall bowlers.”
The other two pacers—jasprit Bumrah is the third—had been struggling on a surface where the Kiwi bowlers had made India batsmen dance to their tune, taking advantage of early life in the pitch.
Bumrah, who is Virat Kohli’s trump card but is playing his first Test series here after an injury come back, and Shami had leaked runs at close to 3.5. Only Ishant stood out. It was perhaps his knowledge of New Zealand—he is touring the country for the third time—that helped.
“If someone plays here for the first time, he doesn’t get used to the wind first up, which is a very big factor—how to bowl against or with it. These are their home conditions,” he told the media after Saturday’s play.
It wasn’t just an unresponsive wicket Ishant was battling. He was fighting his own body too. He revealed he had not slept well due to jetlag and it was difficult to push the body into doing what the mind wanted.
“I am not happy because for the last two days, I have not slept. I was struggling to bowl today. It was not that I wasn’t happy with my bowling. I was not happy with my body. I was struggling a lot with it.
“The way I wanted to bowl, I couldn’t. I could sleep for only 40 minutes yesterday and the night before for just three hours. The more you recover, the more you are able to give effort on the ground. And no recovery is better than sleep. But the team asked me to play, so I played. Anything for the team,” he said.
In the lead up to the Test, Ishant had bowled 21 overs at the NCA to gauge his fitness. Then on arrival, he bowled for 90 minutes at the nets.
“I need to thank NCA and the support staff. All credit needs to go to them. They really worked hard with me. We never really thought (on the lines) that I have to come and play a Test.
“My MRI showed I have a complete tear, ligament tear, not one but two. Everyone said I will be out for six weeks.”
It has been learnt, the NCA decided to go with the clinical diagnosis instead of MRI as often it comes out differently. They managed to stabilise the ankle.
We thought whatever is in my hands, I’ll do. I kept doing my rehab, we tried a lot many things. It was like if it is in my fate I’ll play, else I won’t. I can’t do anything in it. The way I got injured, I don’t think it would have happened to anyone. But then if injury has to happen, it happens. You can slip in the toilet too.”
Ishant defended Bumrah, India’s go-to bowler who is struggling for wickets after his injury comeback. Into his 97th Test, the 31-year-old though showed there is plenty left in the tank.