India has abundance of quality fast bowlers, says Ishant Sharma

Unlike yester years, India now has a pool of eight to nine fast bowlers who can win a Test match in any conditions, feels experienced fast bowler Ishant Sharma.

The 29-year-old, with 238 wickets in 82 Test matches is India’s most capped player in the current set-up and alongside Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Shami will test the English batsman, when the first-Test match begins on August 1.

“Everybody used to say that India can’t produce fast bowlers. Now we have probably eight to nine good fast bowlers, anytime who can play Test cricket for India. We have a pretty good chance to win a series in England and Australia, because of the kind of attack we have,” said Ishant in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

The likes of Kapil Dev, Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan had to bowl longer spells during their playing days, to compensenate for the lack of fast bowling options.

But now India has many bowlers who can get into the Test team at any given point and deliver said Sharma.

The lanky fast bowler’s best figure of 7/74 came against England at Lord’s four years ago, when he bounced most of English batsman out to seal a historic Test win in the mecca of cricket.

“The weather is so nice (in England), you can bowl long spells, the conditions are helpful. The ball is nice, the wicket is favourable. There’s a lot of difference between bowling in England and India,” he said talking of that match.

But despite being a viable option in foreign conditions, the speedster from Delhi however has found it difficult to make a place in the team in home circuit.

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It however does not bother him any longer said Ishant, who in his 11 years inside the Indian dressing room has matured as a bowler from the time he first stepped into the national team.

“Earlier I was really raw. I didn’t know much about bowling – I would just bowl fast. Now I know like, what the batsman is doing, how is the weather, how the wicket is going to behave, then after how many overs what you need to do and everything. You need to adapt, and bowl according to the situation,” he informed.

“I’m not really the kind of guy who likes to give up on things, so I’m really hard on myself. I’m the kind of a person, when the things are really tough I really want to take it on. Sometimes he has to keep on going till the time I don’t get what I want.”

When asked on why he chose to become a fast bowler and not a spinner, Ishant replied in a cheeky manner, “Whatever I choose is my choice.”

I can’t really blame anyone why I didn’t become a spinner and why I’m a fast bowler,” he added. “Fast bowling obviously it’s a difficult thing to do, takes a lot of toll on your body. But it’s a really enjoyable thing as well. It tests your character, tests your strength. It’s really good for me to be a fast bowler. Even in India I’m still happy.”