Ishant Sharma has led the Indian pace attack for quite a long time but now he is out of team India, however he made a solid comeback in the IPL 2023 while playing for Delhi Capitals. Recently, the Indian pacer appeared in a podcast in which he shed his opinion on various matters and when he was asked about the young pacers who could lead the Indian pace bowling in future, he came up with three names.
If we talk about the current scenario, in Jasprit Bumrah’s absence, Mohammed Shami is heading the pace attack and he is getting good support from Mohammed Siraj.
The first name that Ishant Sharma has taken is of Umran Malik, he says that if the team management works properly with the Jammu based pacer, then he can play for India for a long time and the next pacer is Arshdeep Singh.
The third name that Ishant Sharma takes is of Mukesh Kumar who plays for Bengal in the domestic cricket and was Ishant’s teammate in DC in the IPL 2023. Though Mukesh Kumar was expensive as his economy rate was 10.52 and he took 7 wickets in 10 matches yet Ishant Sharma feels that there is a need to see beyond the numbers.
Ishant states that he hasn’t seen a simple person as Mukesh and if he is asked to bowl a particular delivery, then he bowls that particular delivery only. As per Ishant, Mukesh needs proper guidance so that he knows what type of deliveries to bowl in pressure situations. The Delhi pacer further adds that everyone saw Mukesh gave away 50 runs in 4 overs but no one is even trying to see in what situation he bowled and to whom he bowled.
Ishant Sharma further states that when Andre Russell is batting and his team has already lost 8 wickets then he has nothing to lose so if the bowler fails to bowl a Yorker, Russell will definitely hit him for a six. He adds that such things didn’t get noticed in Mukesh’s case and he can be a good bowler if he is given proper guidance.
While Mukesh Kumar is a part of both test and ODI squads for the West Indies tour, Umran and Arshdeep didn’t get included in the test team but they got place in the ODI squad.
Do you agree with Ishant Sharma’s statement? Share your views in this regard.