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 145 km/h - (90 mph).
He delivered the second fastest ball ever bowled by an Indian bowler when he clocked 152.6 km/h (94.8mph) at Adelaide against Australia on 17 February 2008. The fastest one still belongs to Javagal Srinath who clocked 154.5 at the 1999 World Cup. [1]
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.[2] 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 193cm. [3]
[edit] 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.[4]
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.
[edit] 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.[5] 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.[6] 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.[7] 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.[8] 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.[9] He scalped two important wickets on February 18, 2008 versus Australia
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