"With a physique and attitude that is reminiscent of a young Javagal Srinath, Ishant Sharma shot into prominence during the 2007-08 Test series in Australia. Standing at 6'4", his rhythmic, high-arm action allowed him to bowl at around 135-140 kph. For one who started serious cricket at 14, his rise was rapid and he made his Ranji Trophy debut at 18. An injury to Munaf Patel provided him an opening during India's tour of Bangladesh in May 2007 but it was in Australia where he caught the attention, prompting Steve Waugh to call him the next best thing in Indian cricket. He showed he could move the ball both ways and his probing spell in the second innings in Perth, where he set-up Ricky Ponting, was the stuff of folklore. He continued to impress in the one-day series, ending as India's highest wicket-taker in the triumphant campaign."
- Siddhartha Vaidyanathan January 2008 -
Ishant Sharma (born September 2, 1988, in Delhi, India), is an Indian cricketer, more specifically a right arm fast bowler at pace around 145 km/h (90 mph). He delivered the fastest ball ever bowled by an Indian bowler when he clocked 152.6 kph (94.8mph) at Adelaide, Australia versus India on February 17, 2008. Also, in the process, he became first Indian to bowl over 150 kph. He has a high arm delivery action and is able to move the ball in both directions. At the age of 18, Sharma was called to join the Indian squad for the tour of South Africa in 2006-07. However, after receiving the call and organizing travel arrangements, it was decided not to send him on the tour. He has then grabbed all the opportunities that came to his hand and succeeded in both forms of the game. He has earned the nickname Lambu, which refers to his lean but tall build, measuring 6'6" (195 cm).
Sharma plays for Delhi in domestic cricket and has taken 19 wickets in four first class games, including a five-wicket haul against Baroda on the opening day of a match Delhi drew after failing to bowl Baroda out on the fourth day.
Sharma toured England with the India Under-19s in 2006 and Pakistan in 2006–07. He has played three youth Tests and six youth One-day Internationals for India, and is yet to lose a match for them.
In May 2007, he was selected in the test team for the Bangladesh tour and played as a replacement for the fast bowler Munaf Patel. Over there he played for his national side in the second test where he bowled 3 overs including one maiden and conceded only five runs without taking a wicket. Later on, he was called for the tour of England in July-August 2007.
Ishant Sharma got a call back in the team in the 3rd Test Match during Pakistan's tour of India in December 2007 due to injury of India's frontline pacers Zaheer Khan, RP Singh, and Sreesanth. On the batting paradise pitch, Sharma toiled hard for cementing and securing his place permanently in the Indian team while picking 5 wickets during the third test in Bangalore. This performance earned him a place in India's squad for the tour of Australia.
Sharma was left out in the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as India retained their main fast bowlers, Zaheer Khan and RP Singh. However, in January 2008 Sharma was called to represent India once again to replace the injured Zaheer Khan in the second test at the SCG. Sharma started the first day of the match strongly and was involved in a controversial decision from Steve Bucknor when Andrew Symonds clearly nicked the ball to keeper MS Dhoni off his bowling but was given not out. He bowled beautifully in the match, however without much luck.
Although he had little success, the management knew he bowled beautifully and retained him for the third test match at Perth. On the fourth day of the match he bowled an exceptional spell to Australian captain Ricky Ponting that resulted in his wicket and helped India claim victory. He used the pace and bounce of the WACA wicket to trouble the batsmen. In the following test played in Adelaide he picked up two wickets and impressed everyone with his bowling. He didn't bowl above 140-145 kph mark in the test matches so that he could bowl longer spells as needed in this version of the game.He clocked a highest of 197.7 km/h(131.1 mph) at the Adelaide test his highest till then.
On February 10, 2008, Sharma bagged four important wickets in the 4th ODI of CB Series against Australia. He ended up with the figures of 4/38 and claimed the man of the match award. He scalped two important wickets on February 18, 2008 versus Australia in the 7th ODI of CB series to start the riot of Australia's batting failure.
Ishant Sharma has been focusing on becoming a Fast bowler rather than Medium Pacer. He bowled a 149.5 kph delivery versus Australia in Melbourne on February 10, 2008. At that time he was just 0.2 kph short of fastest ball ever bowled by Indian. The record holder was Ashish Nehra who bowled at 149.7 kph versus Zimbabwe at World Cup 2003. However, Ishant was successful in breaking the record just a week after he got close to it, versus Australia in Melbourne on February 17, 2008. His fastest ball was 153.0 kph and he constantly clocked around that 152 kph mark.
Sharma has quite a high-arm action attacking on and around the batsman's off-stump (the corridor of uncertainty) which gives him the ability to nip the ball back in to right-handed batsman and also swing it through the air quite considerably, while extracting a great deal of bounce. Some critics have compared him to the 1980s' West Indian fast bowlers, especially the great Curtly Ambrose. He has also been compared to Indian Fast bowler Javagal Srinath.
Ishant Sharma was the discovery of the tour Down Under. He troubled all of the Australian batsmen with his bowling. This led Australian skipper Ricky Ponting to admit that Ishant Sharma is dangerous. On the basis of his recent strong performance in Australia, Ishant Sharma was lapped up for an astounding winning bid of $950,000 by Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan for his franchise Kolkata in the player auction for the IPL twenty20.This was the highest amount paid for any bowler in IPL. tournament.
*Acknowledgements to Cricinfo.com, Wikipedia.com, owners of pictures/videos displayed
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