Ishant Sharma

Ishant Sharma

Personal information
Full name	Ishant Sharma
Nickname	Lambu
Height	1.95 m (6 ft 5 in)
Batting	Right handed
Bowling	Right arm fast
Role	Bowler
International information
National side	India
Test debut (cap 258)	25 May 2007 v Bangladesh
Last Test	16 November 2009 v Sri Lanka
ODI debut (cap 169)	29 June 2007 v South Africa
Last ODI	2 November 2009 v Australia
ODI shirt no.	29
Domestic team information
Years	Team
2006/07–present	Delhi
2008–present	Kolkata Knight Riders
Career statistics
Competition Tests ODIs FC List A Matches 17 40 34 54 Runs scored 150 36 100 41 Batting average 10.71 6.00 9.09 5.85 100s/50s 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 Top score 23 13 23 13 Balls bowled 3,600 1,878 7,369 2,594 Wickets 59 56 139 81 Bowling average 33.11 32.48 26.76 28.54 5 wickets in innings 1 0 3 0 10 wickets in match 0 n/a 1 n/a Best bowling 5/118 4/38 7/24 4/34 Catches/stumpings 6/– 10/– 10/– 12/–
Source: CricketArchive, 21 November 2009

Ishant Sharma (Hindi: ईशांत शर्मा, Punjabi: ਇਸ਼ਾੰਤ ਸ਼ਰਮਾ) (born 2 September 1988, in Delhi, India), is an Indian cricketer. He is a right arm fast bowler at pace around 135 km/h (85 mph).

He is a very weak fast bowler. (Citation not needed)

He has a high arm delivery action and is able to move the ball in both directions.

At the age of 18, Sharma was called to join the Indian squad for the tour of South Africa in 2006-07. However, after receiving the call and organizing travel arrangements, it was decided not to send him on the tour. He has then grabbed all the opportunities that came to his hand and succeeded in both forms of the game. He has earned the nickname Lambu (meaning Tall Guy), which refers to his lean and tall build, measuring 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in).

Sharma bowling in the nets.

Domestic & First-Class career

Ishant plays for Delhi in domestic cricket and has taken 19 wickets in four first class games, including a five wicket haul against Baroda on the opening day of a match Delhi drew after failing to bowl Baroda out on the fourth day.

Ishant toured England with the India Under-19s in 2006 and Pakistan in 2006–07.

He has played three youth tests and six youth one day internationals for India, and is yet to lose a match for them.

Rise in international cricket

In May 2007, he was selected in the test team for the Bangladesh tour and played as a replacement for the fast bowler Munaf Patel. Over there he played for his national side in the second test where he bowled 3 overs including one maiden and conceded only five runs without taking a wicket. Later on, he was called for the tour of England in July-August 2007.

Ishant Sharma 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, RP Singh, and Sreesanth. On the batting paradise pitch, Sharma 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.

Sharma at fielding practice.

Sharma was left out in the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as India retained their main fast bowlers, Zaheer Khan and RP Singh. However, in January 2008 Sharma was called to represent India once again to replace the injured Zaheer Khan in the second test at the SCG. Sharma started the first day of the match strongly and was involved in a controversial decision from Steve Bucknor when Andrew Symonds nicked the ball to keeper MS Dhoni off his bowling but was given not out. He bowled reasonably in the match, however without much luck.

Although he had little success, the management 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. He used the pace and bounce of the WACA wicket to trouble the batsmen. In the following test played in Adelaide he picked up two wickets and impressed everyone with his bowling. He didn't bowl above 140-145 km/h 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, Sharma bagged four important wickets in the 4th ODI of CB 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 versus Australia in the 7th ODI of CB series.

Achievements and abilities

However, Ishant was successful in breaking the record just a week after he got close to it, versus Australia in Melbourne on February 17, 2008. His fastest ball was 153.0 kilometres per hour ()</ref>

Sharma has a high-arm action attacking on and around the batsman's off-stump (the corridor of uncertainty) which gives him 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 legendary Curtly Ambrose. He has also been compared to the Indian Fast bowler Javagal Srinath. Under the tutelage of Indian bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad, Ishant has learnt the difficult art of reverse swing which he put in to use to trouble the visiting Australians in 2008.

Ishant Sharma was the discovery of the tour Down Under. He troubled some of the best Australian batsmen with his bowling. This led Australian skipper Ricky Ponting to admit that Ishant Sharma is dangerous. On the basis of his recent strong performance in Australia, Ishant Sharma was lapped up for an astounding winning bid of $950,000 by Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan for his franchise Kolkata Knight Riders in the player auction for the IPL twenty20.This was the highest amount paid for any bowler in IPL tournament.

During the 2008 Test series against Australia in India, Ishant was the leading wicket-taker, with 15, and was named man-of-the-series as India won 2–0. He thereby became the first Indian paceman to win such an award in a Test series on Indian soil after Kapil Dev who won the award in 1983. He was noted for achieving reverse swing on balls sometimes as young as eight overs, and along with senior opening bowler Zaheer Khan, troubled the touring Australians. He took Australian captain Ricky Ponting's wicket three times during the series, and six times in as many Tests, making the Indian press label Ponting as Ishant's bunny

However, in 2009, Ishant's form slumped, and he was dropped for the Second Test against Sri Lanka, replaced by Sreesanth.

External links

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