In the lanky Ishant Sharma India have finally discovered a bowler who knows his strength lies in bowling fast and he sticks to that.Ishant delivered the fastest ball ever bowled by an Indian bowler when he clocked 152.6 kph (94.8mph) at Adelaide against Australia on February 17, 2008. Also, in the process, he became first Indian to bowl over 150 kph. He has a high arm delivery action and is able to move the ball in both directions. The fact that Ishant sticks to his strength of bowling fast is more soothing to the eyes because before him, India have had the case of Munaf Patel who was once touted as the fastest bowler in the country but now is reduced to a mere medium fast bowler.In May 2007, Ishant was selected in the Test team for the Bangladesh tour and played as a replacement for Munaf. Later on, he was called for the tour of England in July-August 2007.Ishant got a call back in the team in the 3rd Test Match during Pakistan's tour of India in December 2007 due to injury of India's frontline pacers Zaheer Khan, Rudra Pratap Singh, and S Sreesanth.On the batting paradise pitch, Ishant toiled hard for cementing and securing his place permanently in the Indian team while picking 5 wickets during the third Test in Bangalore. This performance earned him a place in India's squad for the tour of Australia.On the Australian tour, Ishant was left out in the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne as India retained their main fast bowlers, Zaheer and RP Singh. However, in January 2008 Ishant was called to represent India once again to replace the injured Zaheer in the second Test at the SCG.Ishant started the first day of the match strongly and was involved in a controversial decision from Steve Bucknor when Andrew Symonds clearly nicked the ball to keeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni off his bowling but was given not out। He bowled beautifully in the match, however without much luck.
Although he had little success, the management knew he bowled beautifully and retained him for the third Test match at Perth.
On the fourth day of the match he bowled an exceptional spell to Australian captain Ricky Ponting that resulted in his wicket and helped India claim victory. Ishant used the pace and bounce of the WACA wicket to trouble the batsmen.In the following Test in Adelaide Ishant was impressive again picking up two wickets. He didn't bowl above 140-145 kph mark in the Test matches so that he could bowl longer spells as needed in this version of the game. He clocked a highest of 147.7 km/h (91.1 mph) at the Adelaide Test his highest till then.On February 10, 2008, Ishant bagged four important wickets in the 4th ODI of Tri-Series against Australia. He ended up with the figures of 4/38 and claimed the man of the match award.He scalped two important wickets on February 18, 2008 against Australia in the 7th ODI of Tri-Series to start the riot of Australia's batting failure.A high-arm action attacking on and around the batsman's off-stump (the corridor of uncertainty) gives Ishant the ability to nip the ball back in to right-handed batsman and also swing it through the air quite considerably, while extracting a great deal of bounce.Some critics have compared him to the 1980s' West Indian fast bowlers, especially the great Curtly Ambrose. He has also been compared to former Indian fast bowler Javagal Srinath.On the basis of his recent strong performance in Australia, Ishant was lapped up for an astounding winning bid of $950,000 by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan for his franchise Kolkata in the player auction for the IPL Twenty20.This is the highest amount paid for any bowler in the IPL tournament.
On the fourth day of the match he bowled an exceptional spell to Australian captain Ricky Ponting that resulted in his wicket and helped India claim victory. Ishant used the pace and bounce of the WACA wicket to trouble the batsmen.In the following Test in Adelaide Ishant was impressive again picking up two wickets. He didn't bowl above 140-145 kph mark in the Test matches so that he could bowl longer spells as needed in this version of the game. He clocked a highest of 147.7 km/h (91.1 mph) at the Adelaide Test his highest till then.On February 10, 2008, Ishant bagged four important wickets in the 4th ODI of Tri-Series against Australia. He ended up with the figures of 4/38 and claimed the man of the match award.He scalped two important wickets on February 18, 2008 against Australia in the 7th ODI of Tri-Series to start the riot of Australia's batting failure.A high-arm action attacking on and around the batsman's off-stump (the corridor of uncertainty) gives Ishant the ability to nip the ball back in to right-handed batsman and also swing it through the air quite considerably, while extracting a great deal of bounce.Some critics have compared him to the 1980s' West Indian fast bowlers, especially the great Curtly Ambrose. He has also been compared to former Indian fast bowler Javagal Srinath.On the basis of his recent strong performance in Australia, Ishant was lapped up for an astounding winning bid of $950,000 by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan for his franchise Kolkata in the player auction for the IPL Twenty20.This is the highest amount paid for any bowler in the IPL tournament.
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