Gillespie gave me solutions: Ishant Sharma on how he improved after county stint at Sussex

In recent years, Ishant Sharma has taken the role of a leader in the Indian bowling unit. With Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Umesh Yadav, Sharma has been part of the group which has helped India become a successful Test side.

But before that, Sharma was always struggling to deliver consistency. On Saturday, he revealed that despite many telling him the problem, it was only after training under former Australia pacer Jason Gillespie that he improved as a fast bowler.

“A lot of people would tell me that I need to increase the pace of my fuller deliveries,” Sharma said. “No one told me how to do that? It was when I went to play county cricket, Jason Gillespie gave me the solution,” Ishant said.

Sharma played for Sussex under Gillespie’s coaching and he was talking to reporters after Delhi’s Ranji Trophy game against Hyderabad in New Delhi.

“Gillespie told me that in order to increase pace in fuller deliveries, you don’t just release it but hit the deck so that it should target the knee roll,” he said.

Not only his pace but Gillespie also changed Sharma’s training methods to get better results.

“Earlier, I would put cones [on good length spots] during nets,” he said. “But that’s okay for a youngster, who wants to get his areas right but for someone like me, I need to see where my ball is finishing rather than where it’s pitched.

“Practice is almost same but outcome is different. Gillespie’s instructions ensured that my fuller delivery is faster now.”

Sharma, who has played 96 Tests and taken 292 wickets, said that under Virat Kohli’s captaincy, the fast bowlers are better at communication. It is majorly because under previous captain MS Dhoni, there were six to seven fast bowlers in the pool which has now come down to four.

“During Dhoni’s time, some of us didn’t have that much of experience,” he said. “Also the fast bowlers would be rotated a lot, that’s also a reason that consistency as a group couldn’t be achieved. If you know that you are a pool of three-four fast bowlers, that increases communication. Earlier, there would be 6 to 7 bowlers, communication wasn’t there.”

“But when Virat took over, we have all by then gained fair amount of experience and that helped. Now when you play more, stay in that dressing room more, spend more time with team compared to family, discussions are free and frank. And then you start enjoying when you go out there in the middle. That’s a different feeling.”

Sharma now bowls in short bursts with increased pace and it has happened after he stopped bowling his stock back-of-length deliveries which was a routine under Dhoni, who used him for long spells.

“From the beginning, I got a tag and people started calling me ‘workhorse’. So seniors at that time would tell me that you need to bowl 20 overs and if you even give 60 runs, you will still end up getting three wickets,” he said.

“That works on your mind that you have to bowl 20 overs. So you bowl back of length deliveries and batsmen start leaving those till they get set and then come back to attack you. And you end up giving away 80 runs.”

But his job was never defined at the start of his career. But with his age, he has gained experience and a defined job as well.

“No role was given to me but that became a role. Your job is to get batsmen out whenever you can,” he said. “I was not experienced enough earlier but now I know my job.”

“I had so much of ups and downs in my career and there hasn’t been a lot of consistency. So you are under a lot of pressure. Since 2010, I used to be under a lot of pressure to perform and lost my sleep over it. So I have stopped thinking. I will give my hundred percent to each delivery and result will take care of itself.”

Purely because of his longevity, his name is taken in the same breath as Kapil or Zaheer Khan, the latter also being a guiding force for the better part of his career.

“I am not into comparisons with Zak [Khan] or Kapil [Dev] to be honest. They have performed a lot for the country,” he said.

“As far as I am concerned, I can tell you whatever experience I have gained, I try and pass it onto the juniors. That’s important. So that in coming years, there is another fast bowler who can play for Delhi. That would make me proud.”

(With PTI inputs)