Ishant Sharma recently became the 4th Indian Bowler along with Kapil Dev, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh to play 100 test matches.
19-year-old Ishant Sharma made his debut against Bangladesh way back In 2007. Since then the 6'4 tall fast bowler has gone on to reach incredible heights. When Ishant Sharma came into the Indian team, Zaheer Khan was the leader of the attack and the main wicket-taking bowler, Ishant on the other hand kept things tight and economical from the other end.
Ishant Sharma had an incredible ability to bowl long spells regularly. It was due to that ability he got the memorable wicket of Ricky Ponting in 2008 at Perth. India were 2-0 down in a series surrounded by controversies. In the 3rd Test Match India set a target of 413 runs. Australia were 43-2 when captain Ricky Ponting walked in. In the first session of day 4, Anil Kumble brought Ishant Sharma into the attack.
Right from the first ball, Ponting looked uncomfortable against the Delhi born bowler. Ishant Sharma continuously rattled Ponting with his natural In-swingers. Ponting managed to survive a few close LBW calls and missed a few edges. Indian captain Anil Kumble was about to change Ishant Sharma out as he was worried about a potential injury after Zaheer Khan had already been injured in the first Test. But Virender Sehwag who had captained Ishant in the Delhi team told Kumble that the bowler was used to ball longer spells than usual.
In his very next over Ishant Sharma got Ponting out after getting an outside edge as Rahul Dravid took a clean catch at first slip. Ponting got out and India won a historical Test Match by 72 runs.
Talking about the spell Ishant Sharma said
"At 19 you don't plan, to be honest, You just bowl. When you play a lot then the planning starts, about what you should do and not do. I knew just one thing: I have to bowl in good areas and after that somehow I should get a wicket. And the more consistently I bowled in good areas, the greater the chances of me getting a wicket."
14 years after his magical spell Ishant Sharma is still going strong having taken 303 test match wickets.
