In a team sport the real worth of a player is best gauged from within the dressing room. What the experts, the media and the fans see from the other side of the boundary is, at best, half the truth. It is particularly so in the case of Ishant Sharma. In the outside world, Ishant is one of the most unappreciated cricketers. Since his Test debut, in 2007, he has been subjected to much unwarranted criticism – most of it stemming from gargantuan levels of expectations – and has often transformed into cruel ridicule. But the 27-year-old fast bowler has seen enough at a young age to let it affect him. It helps Ishant to know that within the confines of the dressing room his value is immense. He is the lynchpin of a young and inexperienced pace bowling attack, and over the last year and a half, he has risen to that role, although he is reluctant to put a tag on it. Ishant’s numbers (200 wickets in 65 Tests at 36.51) are not earth-shattering, but numbers seldom tell the full story. There are no statistics for the number of times he brought India back in a Test match in Australia last year after his more inexperienced pace colleagues took a pounding. They don’t count the instances where he volunteered to bend his back for his captain in sweltering conditions on a flat pitch when nothing was happening for the team. Statistics will not tell you that Ishant is one of the cricketers who work the hardest on their game. These are the little hidden things that make up the worth of a sportsman. And Ishant knows that. That is what came across in this chat BCCI.TVhad with him. He spoke about his new-found bowling rhythm, where India’s bowling attack stands at the moment and what are the areas they have to improve on. We have seen tremendous improvement in your bowling since Australia. What have you done to bring about this transformation? I haven’t done much work on my bowling, just increased my bowling load. Everyone says that pacers will not get wickets in Asia and it is all about the spinners. But there are phases when nothing is happening and wickets are not coming easily. That’s when as a fast bowler you have to say, ‘I will get a wicket for my captain’. For that you need self-belief. I got that from increasing my workload. If I have to bowl 20 overs in a Test, I bowl 30 overs in the nets. If I have practised running 10,000 miles, it will be easy for me to do the 1,000 miles in a race. Even if it is my rest day, I bowl 10 overs. You have also shortened your run-up. Talk about that. I shortened my run-up a bit because when I used to run, I didn’t feel free. There was something missing. I was also bowling a lot of no-balls. After I shortened it a bit, I started feeling more free and the number of no-balls too went down. When you feel comfortable in your run-up, your bowling rhythm automatically improves. It is very apparent that you now have better control over the ball. The accuracy and discipline have been superb. Did you work on that particularly? It is very important for a fast bowler to know where the ball is going to pitch when it leaves your hand. I have quite a bit of Test experience now and I have a better idea as to how to vary my length according to the pitch. Most bowlers keep a cone on the pitch to target the spot they want to land the ball in. But I put the cone on the top of off-stump. Your ball must finish at the top of off-stump, no matter where you are playing in the world. The length keeps changing according to the conditions, but it should finish on top of off. That sort of practice has helped. We saw in Australia, you often came in to bowl and did the damage control for our inexperienced fast bowlers – Umesh, Shami, Varun. You bowled consistently full, outside off, kept talking to them, telling them what to do. Our younger bowlers too know they have a responsibility towards the team. But sometimes, you are not able to do what you want to do. It may be because of a minor technical fault, or when you veer from your plans. Sometimes, when a bowler is not able to pick wickets, he gets restless and runs behind wickets. Once I was playing with Anil (Kumble) bhai and he made a very pertinent point in a bowlers’ meeting. He said, ‘If you have bowled four good balls in a row, don’t try to take a wicket off the fifth and sixth balls. You will go for a boundary. Postpone that thought’. It is a very small thing, but for a bowler it is very big. The pressure you have created with four good balls, you have to maintain it for two-three overs. In international cricket if you bowl three consecutive maiden overs, something will happen for you as a bowler. You will get a wicket. Patience is the key. Such understanding comes with time and experience. All the guys – Varun, Shami, Bhuvi, and Umesh – will learn these things gradually. When you graduate to the international level, aren’t you expected to have this understanding? Yes, as a fast bowling group, we can improve on our overall consistency and accuracy. My personal experience says that playing first-class cricket helps in this regards. I played a couple of Ranji Trophy matches before this series and I make it a point to play as many first-class matches as I can, because it is more difficult to take wickets in first-class cricket than in Test cricket. That is simply because in first-class matches the batsmen will mostly look to block and bat long, whereas in Test cricket they look to score runs. How to get a batsman out when he is happy to defend every ball is something you learn in first-class cricket. There is a lot of talk around about Bhuvneshwar Kumar and how he has lost his swing in a bid to gain an extra yard of pace. You are really close to him, you know him well as a bowler. What are your thoughts on him? I do not agree with those observations. The reason why Bhuvi has gained pace is because he has gotten stronger, developed more muscles. And he has not stopped swinging the ball. Since the Sydney Test in January, Bhuvi hasn’t played a Test match. In the next Test series that we play, and the next match Bhuvi plays, I can give you in writing that he will do well. People have come to this conclusion about him not swinging the ball on the basis of the T20I and ODI series against South Africa. Bhuvi has been known to get early breakthroughs in the limited over formats since his debut. Just because he didn’t do it in one series, it doesn’t mean he has lost his skills. It is unfair to judge him based on the last ODI series. In Sri Lanka, there was nothing in the pitches for the pacers. But you stood out with the way you made things happen with the ball, got crucial breakthroughs (13 wickets in three Tests including a five-for). What was the key? When I went to Sri Lanka, I had decided that I will be back with the satisfaction of having achieved something special for my country. It was not like, ‘Okay, the spinners will take wickets and nothing happens there for the fast bowlers’. You just go there, bowl your overs and come back. You cannot keep saying, ‘This is a young team and you need to give them leeway’. It is high time we got past that attitude, and that has been very specifically said in the team. Talk a bit about the all-out approach of this Indian Test team. The best thing is that we believe in each other. I know it has been said many times before and it is a standard thing to say. But that is really the case with this team. We back each other, encourage each other. Everyone has their families visit them on tours, but the 15 boys in the squad, we are each other’s first family. I have goosebumps right now, as I say these words to you. It is true. We are all together and have each other’s back at all times. If we lose, we all go down together, if we win, we move up together. Talk about the difference between bowling with a Kookaburra (used in Sri Lanka) and the SG ball (used in India) on the subcontinent wickets. The new Kookaburra ball swings more prodigiously than the new SG ball. The difference between the two is that the Kookaburra, in Asian conditions, swings for the first 20-25 overs, and the SG starts swinging only after 10 overs. In Sri Lanka my only aim was to give the team early breakthroughs, so that we can utilise the new ball in the best possible way. We have seen since Australia last year the new tactics from the Indian bowlers to come round the wicket to the left-handers. Do you feel it is really working? It has worked for me. My ball goes away from the left-hander after pitching, and an odd ball will go through straight. The only thing with this tactic is that you need to have a lot of power in your body. When you bowl round the wicket, you have to be more open in your stride and bowl quicker, so that your ball cuts in the air and gets to the batsman faster and with more swing. So, this is something only a proper fast bowler can do; a medium pacer cannot do it effectively. I don’t see any disadvantage in this tactic because even if your ball doesn’t swing, it cuts at the batsman’s thigh pad. Even in an ODI if a ball finishes anywhere between the top of flap or thigh pad, it is a good length. On flat wickets there is not much a fast bowler can do. You will have to come up with new ways and try new things. You also have to believe in your ploy. If you feel that you can get someone out by going round the wicket, back yourself and do it. I know many people on the outside don’t agree with it. But if I feel it is the best way for me to get a wicket, I will do it. A bouncer is a fast bowler’s special weapon. We have seen you use it effectively over the last year and a half. The Lord’s Test immediately comes to mind. What does the bouncer mean to you as a fast bowler? It depends on what the batsman is trying to do. If he is coming forward a lot, I have to push him back. If I feel that he is looking to ensure that my ball doesn’t swing or that he doesn’t get out coming forward, I bowl a bouncer to surprise him. You never bowl a bouncer to get the batsman out. You bowl it to scare him, soften him up and set him up for the wicket-taking delivery, which is often a fuller one. Again, this is something you learn at the domestic level – how to read that batsman, get him out of his comfort zone and make him as uncomfortable as you can.

Let’s talk about your batting. You are one of the most stubborn tailenders around. Most No. 10 and 11 batsmen go out there and swing their bat. But you make the bowlers earn your wicket. Your partnership with VVS Laxman in the 2010 Mohali Test against Australia and with Virender Sehwag in Galle, in 2008-09 come to mind. I may not be a proper batsman, but when I am batting out there for my team, I have enough courage to not give away my wicket out of fear. I would not like seeing myself in the mirror if I did that. When I have a bat in my hand, it is my job to try my best to survive out there. I know I will get out; everyone gets out in the end. But I will not go without putting up a fight. And to be able to do that, I work really hard on my batting. Cricket has changed. Runs scored by the tailenders make a lot of difference. That leads me to my last question. We have often seen that India have struggled to get the last five wickets of the oppositions after having the top-order in the bag. Why do you think that is the case? The fact is that most of the teams have a better lower-order batting than we do. Their last five or four bat better than us. Another reason could also be that we try too hard to get the tailenders out quickly. When you bowl to a proper batsman, you don’t bowl to pick a wicket every ball. You try to bowl to your field and execute a plan. When we bowl to tailenders, we probably lack that patience. Instead of looking to get a wicket off every other ball, we need to focus on being consistent with our bowling, just like we do against proper batsmen.