Ishant Sharma: India’s veteran fast bowler Ishant Sharma has currently fallen out of the selectors’ radar and is not in the grand scheme of things now. He is not part of the Test setup and is unlikely that he will be called up to the team.
With age on his age, the selectors might not knock on his door. The 34-year-old last donned the Test outfit back in 2021 against the New Zealand cricket team.
However, since then, he was not a starter for the team. Ishant Sharma is one of the very few Indian cricketers who has played more than 100 Tests in his career.
The lanky paceman has played 105 games wherein he accounted for 311 dismissals. It is worth mentioning that he has bagged as many as eleven fifers to his name.
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On the other side of the coin, Ishant Sharma took 115 wickets in 80 ODIs. The veteran bowler took eight wickets in 14 T20Is so far.
Meanwhile, the experienced cricketer made the headlines after he recalled an interesting incident where Virat Kohli was not impressed with Jasprit Bumrah’s first bowling spell during the team’s tour of Australia.
Virat Kohli was not pleased with Jasprit Bumrah’s first bowling spell during India’s tour of Australia: Ishant Sharma
Taking a trip down memory lane, the veteran Indian fast bowler Ishant Sharma recalled the incident when a young Jasprit Bumrah broke into the playing XI. Meanwhile, during a candid interaction with Cricbuzz, the lanky paceman opened up that he always had high expectations of talented Jasprit Bumrah.
Recalling a 2018 incident, the experienced campaigner opened up about how Bumrah didn’t bring the best out of himself. Back then, Virat Kohli wanted to have a chat with him.
However, senior cricketer Ishant Sharma stopped him from doing so. “I knew a day would come when Bumrah would become a leader. I remember in 2018, when we were playing a Test match in Australia and his first spell did not go well,” he recalled.
“Virat told me ‘I think I should go and speak to him’. I said ‘ He is a very smart bowler. He understands it. Usko chhor de. Usko pata hai kya karna, kya nehi karna (Leave him alone. He knows what he needs to do),” Ishant added.
“In that way he is very smart. He understands the game and he understands the situation.’ When you understand the situation, especially in Test cricket, you can make a comeback very quickly,” he said.
Notably, Jasprit Bumrah took as many as 21 wickets in that series including a fifer as Team India clinched an emphatic win against Australia. India won the series by 2-1, in what was their first-ever series win Down Under.