No amount of gym can substitute bowling for long stretches, claims Ishant Sharma

03/15/2020

Ishant Sharma has reckoned that no amount of working out in the gym can substitute for bowling long hours in the practice nets. Ishant has further talked about how his decision to play county cricket under Jason Gillespie when he was not picked for IPL helped him improve as a bowler.

Ishant has come a long way since his memorable spell to Ricky Ponting in the Perth Test in the 2007-08 season. The journey from being the workhorse of the Indian bowling lineup to taking over as the main strike bowler as well has not come easy — by any stretch of the imagination. According to the 31-year-old, the fitness to bowl eight-nine-ten overs on the trot came courtesy of the time under his coach Shravan Kumar during his schooling years.

"I developed bowling long spells at these practice grounds (Shravan Kumar's academy). Sir used to give us bowling at 1pm and tell us to bowl until it's dark. That's where I developed my bowling fitness. The bowling muscles are totally different. Any amount of gym or running is not going to substitute for bowling," Ishant said on Cricbuzz's Spicy Pitch.

Not too long ago, though, it seemed like the curtains had come down on Ishant’s international career, as he failed time and again to live up to the potential he displayed on that tour of Australia 13 years ago. Being dropped from the IPL as well, Ishant headed to the UK in what turned out to be a famous career-changing stint at Sussex under Gillespie’s tutelage.

"When you don't get picked in IPL and you're at home and you see your teammates playing cricket for two months, you get mentally tortured. I decided to play county instead. People used to keep telling me to bowl fuller but nobody told me how to bowl fuller. The good length deliveries are quicker and you can only develop that through county cricket,” Ishant added.

The 31-year-old pacer also did not hold back when asked to choose between Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli. Ishant, who has resurrected his career under the captaincy of Kohli, went on to describe that the Indian skipper is the best batsman he has ever watched on a cricket field.

“Virat Kohli is the best batsman I have ever seen play on a cricket field,” said Ishant.