BD Post Sports
Indian paceman Ishant Sharma, whose 5 for 22 haul was instrumental in bundling out Bangladesh for 106 in the first innings of the day-night Test in Kolkata on Friday, attributed his performance to putting a lot less pressure on himself and the wisdom that years at the top level have
given him.
"I think I'm enjoying my cricket now," Ishant told a presser after the first day’s play in Kolkata on Friday.
"Earlier, I used to put pressure on myself about performing, that I need to take wickets, that I'm only beating the batsman. A lot of things used to run on my mind. Now, I don't think too much about those things, just how to take wickets.
Obviously, I’m experienced, so I can assess conditions and adjust my lengths quickly, that makes it easy," he said. Ishant has been around for well over a decade but has since long stopped being a regular part of the limited-overs outfits of India. He last played a one-day international in January 2016 while he hasn’t played a T20 international in more than six years. But the years put in at the
international level have made him mature about how he handles
disappointments.
"In some sense [it hurts], yes,” Ishant said adding “but I'm at a stage of my life where I've stopped worrying about these kind of things. I'm 31 now, I can't keep worrying now about which format my name has been picked for.”
"Whether I play for India, whether I play Ranji Trophy - I just want to be playing at this point. It's a simple thing. If you desire to keep playing, you'll do well. Cricket's given us everything. If we keep cribbing about small things like these, we will never improve," the speedster said.
Ishant’s bowling feat at the Eden Garden has not gone unnoticed by Bangladesh head coach Russell Domingo who cited him as a benchmark for his own team’s bowlers to improve.
"Look at the way Ishant started and the way his career is now. It takes a bit of time for these young fast bowlers to find the length and the discipline it takes to bowl to guys like Rohit [Sharma], Virat [Kohli] or [Cheteshwar] Pujara. It is a steep learning curve at the moment," Domingo said.
"I don't want to keep comparing the two sides but if you think of the number of Tests their pacers have played and compare that with Ebadat Hossain's fourth Test match, we have a very inexperienced bowling line-up," he said.
