When Ishanth sharma first entered international cricket all thought of a 19 year race horse muscling its way through the thick bushes with an ambition beat the remaining racers. The young Indian fast bowlers bowled some outstanding in swingers to gain his place in the side.
One should consider that he is not the same old young bowler he used to be but compared to other fast bowlers of his era he is still maintaining the pace. Neither his swing changed, He can bowl an outstanding in swinger at a moderate pace to blind the batsman and hit the woods right in the centre. He is one of those gifted in swingers who just has a kitty full of amazing deliveries but fails to setup the batsman to make the mistake.
If you had a nice chef and he prepares every dish with all that he knows and understands from his past experience, the dish is supposed to turn out good. but if the taste buds say its a wonderful dish and still looks so ugly to look at the eye will not allow the hand to make the move to the dish and let the tongue feel the actual taste. We hesitate a bit to do that. The same case is with Ishanth's bowling. He has amazing deliveries in his kitty. The sharp nip of the cricket ball that he can produce can blind all most every cricketer who ever played, be it to the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and yesteryear greats like Gary sobers, Sir Don Bradman, Viv Richards etc. But all the above said players wait till the last moment to hit a ball to the ground. So it is difficult to bowl that nipping in delivery and produce results, they would just fend it and continue to the next ball.
The trick lies here, Set them up with 3 straight on deliveries, 1 bouncer into the chest and then there you go all the batsman will now go a bit back in their crease, now if you bowl your ace out the nipping in delivery, there is quite a bit of chance that the above players faulter. It is not that Ishanth does not know all these,
But if you are playing a keyboard for the past say 5-6 years and suddenly you are asked to produce the symphony you might hesitate in the beginning but surely if you remember all the cords then definitely there is no stopping. Thats it if you remember some of the basics like setting up a batsman for a bowler like Ishanth would reach new heights and bring laurels to cricket and India as well.
Focus on the work at hand and continue to do so till the last minute. Thats the way it has to be done.
Note : I do not intend to coach or advise Ishanth Sharma by any means. What I meant is only my openion of the recent Test 6 wicket haul of Ishanth proving back to his critics why he is needed the most in the Indian cricket team.
