He is what you may call the silent warrior. Very few people realised that Ishant Sharma reached a milestone when he dismissed Dan Lawrence of England in the second innings of the ongoing Test at Chennai. It was Ishant Sharma’s 300th Test wicket. In the process he became the sixth Indian bowler to take 300 or more wickets in Test wickets.
See link for Ishant’s 300th Test wicket:
https://www.bcci.tv/videos/149363/ishant-sharma-s-historic-300th-wicket
Ishant achieved the feat in his 98th Test. Yes, among the Indian bowlers he has taken the highest number of Tests to reach the milestone. However, during the initial part of his career, Ishant was more often a buffer for other bowlers. He used to hold one end up and create opportunities for others to get wickets. It was only in 2015 that a new Ishant came to the fore.
Coming of age
From that time onwards, Ishant started bowling a fuller length and reversing the ball. It brought him success as well accolades. He emerged as the leader of the pack of pacers including Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami. It was under the tutelage of Ishant that these two players flourished and the Indian pace attack became all the more menacing.
Test debut
Ishant made his Test debut in May 2007 against Bangladesh at Dhaka. At that point of time, the boy with a mop of unruly long hair was a tear away fast bowler. He picked up only one wicket in that game, but made a lasting impression promising of better things to come in the future.
Other bowlers
Kapil Dev (434 wickets) and Zaheer Khan (311) are the other two Indian pacers who feature in the 300-plus club. Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh and Ravichandran Ashwin are the spinners who have more than 300 Test wickets to their names. So Ishant now is in elite company.
No one will grudge him the feat. He has been the quintessential team man working away with the opposition.
Hats off to Ishant Sharma.
