Hello Friends,
Hope all of you are doing good during these tough times. I am sure while being confined in home comfort most of you would have watched the World Test Championship(WTC) final between India & New Zealand. Even though it was disappointing that we could not win the final after dominating test cricket for last couple of years, the effort of the entire team throughout the WTC cycle is something to be proud of. Hopefully next time the team is able to put up a lot better performance when it matters the most. Cricketing action doesn't stop for the Indian fans though. There is a long upcoming season including test series against England ,New Zealand, remainder of IPL 2021, World T20 to name a few. Thought of writing about one of the successful yet not much talked about Indian cricketing hero who has been serving the nation for more than a decade now. Asian teams are known more for producing outstanding spinners over the years. Indian cricket is no exception in that regard. That is why fast bowling legends like Kapil Dev, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer khan get so much of respect worldwide as they have succeeded going against the trend. I am going to talk about one such pacer who has been successfully carrying the Indian fast bowling legacy forward.
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| Image Credit: flickr.com |
Ishant Sharma, the 6'4" tall fast bowler from Delhi started his cricketing career at a tender age & soon termed as the probable next big thing in Indian cricket. Time and again he proved his critics wrong & made useful contributions in Indian victory especially in test cricket. He is only the 3rd Indian pacer after Kapil Dev & Zaheer Khan to achieve the milestone of 300 test wickets. 300 test wickets is no joke specially for Indian fast bowlers who don't get pace friendly wickets at the domestic level. But Lambu( Ishant's nickname) became the trendsetter here who proved that if you have the hunger to succeed & zeal to fight against all odds success will be yours.
As we hear very often that result is the outcome of a consistent process, Ishant's success is a testament to it. Even though one may think his journey would have been lot easier considering there was not much competition in the fast bowling department in Indian cricket compared to spin bowling. But that is far from being true. The biggest challenge fast bowlers face irrespective of generation is to keep themselves fit for the grind of international cricket. That is why consistent match winning performances in test cricket by a fast bowler is no lesser than a batter scoring number of centuries or double centuries.
Ishant started his test career with the national side in 2007 where his impressive bowling against Bangladesh & Pakistan earned him a place in the touring party to Australia. That series in Australia marked the arrival of the Delhi lad in the international arena. Outstanding performances in both test & one day series established him as one of the leading fast bowling weapons for India. He caught the attention in that tour to Australia by troubling the Aussie batters including captain Ricky Ponting & bowling at a pace above 150km/h. Bowling at a pace of 150kph & above was not something very usual in Indian cricket those days. Hence such distinction put him into a different league altogether at the very beginning of his career. His impressive performances at the international level earned him a handsome paycheck in the inaugural season of Indian premier league(IPL). Can it be better than this ?? Doesn't everything look like a dream ?? One would think after such accolades in the initial phases of his career life would have been easier for him afterwards. It actually turned the other way around.
Ishant witnessed the low phase pretty quickly in his career. Form dipped, lost his earlier pace too. Injuries didn't make his situation any easier. Once termed as future superstar suddenly seemed to fade away too quickly. But he kept working hard on his fitness & skills. With time he started becoming a red ball specialist. Playing majorly test cricket gave him more time to work on his fitness. He went through ankle surgery in 2012 which was troubling him for a while. Consistent injuries brought frequent setbacks in his career including missing the flight for 2015 ODI world cup. But through all these ups & downs one thing that did not change a bit was his will power to emerge victorious. His spell of 7/74 at the Lord's in 2014 is considered as one of the finest spells by an Indian pacer in overseas conditions.
Earlier this year in February he became the 4th Indian bowler & 2nd seamer after Kapil Dev to represent his country in 100 test matches. While looking at his career one may highlight 100 test matches,300 test wickets, match winning spells in Australia & England, but what actually stands out is his persistence. He could have given up during any of those low phases when things were not working in his favour. That is the biggest lesson any young fast bowler can learn from Ishant. It is not about how early or how brilliantly you start, but how long you can persist to achieve excellence.
In a country like India where young bowlers prefer to become spinners, Ishant is the right roll model to change the mindset. We can already see the change as currently Indian pace bowling department looks lot stronger than ever courtesy emergence of talented young fast bowlers. Ishant is definitely the current leader of the pace bowling attack in red ball cricket. Ishant's credentials are no lesser than any of the English, Aussie or South African fast bowler with bag full of wickets. Indian fans would expect that 300 wickets or 100 test matches is definitely not the last milestone in the cricketing journey of this pace bowling great. If he can maintain his fitness level Ishant is definitely up for lot more milestones which can be a guiding force for the future generation of fast bowlers worldwide.
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