“I have not seen Ishant Sharma bowl with confidence regularly”- Venkatesh prasad
Though he shone with the ball in the recent away test series, Ishant Sharma is yet to impress former Indian pacer Venkatesh Prasad with his skills as the latter revealed his distrust over Sharma’s bowling.
In an interview to PTI, Venky, the former bowling coach of the side said, “I am not able to understand. Having played for so long, he is still getting to know about his bowling. He should be spearheading the pace attack for India without a doubt. He not only needs to spearhead the attack consistently, he should pass on the confidence to other fast bowlers in the team”.
It is an open fact that though he is a talented bowler, he has been inconsistent throughout his career so far.
Prasad also added, “Ishant has been around for a long long time. With his experience, he should play fearlessly. He should have lot of confidence in his ability but that is something I have not seen regularly. When you have played for long, you need to show that confidence. The other thing is that you need to pass on that confidence to the other bowlers. That is what his role should be.”
Looking at the experience that Ishant has gathered over the years, the veteran bowler feels that he should take the driver’s seat to lead the bowling and should be confident about his own actions and strong zones and also improve the lackings.
“Wickets is an outcome. I have not seen him bowl with confidence regularly. When he is among wickets, he is confident. That holds true for everyone. But a player like Ishant, who has played so many Test matches, automatically should be showing the confidence in all circumstances and not worry about the wickets.”
An instant help came from Prasad towards Sharma’s way as he himself picked some of his problems and strengths that are needed to be highlighted.
“He has got to mix it up. His strength is to bowl back of a length and push the batsmen on to the backfoot. But he needs to mix it up by bowling a couple of fuller deliveries. There are bowlers who pitch it up often and they need to mix it up by bowling back of a length. He needs to get batsmen on the front foot. That will make him even more effective.”
On the rare occasion of an outburst of emotions on field and Ishant’s a one-match ban, he opined- “You cannot go overboard with aggression, as simple as that. You need to uphold the spirit of the game. You need to follow the code of conduct because a lot of young kids are watching you. Controlled aggression is needed. He needs to focus on his skill, focus on getting the batsman out rather than getting over-aggressive. Being a senior with more than 60 Test matches under his belt, he needs to conduct himself properly and be a role, model.”