Indian pace attack can be the key against England, feels Ishant Sharma

XtraTime Web Desk: Indian cricket team now has a bunch of young and talented pace bowlers to make team India as a formidable Test outfit feels Ishant Sharma.

The Indian team is facing injury woes in their fast bowling department ahead of the 5-match Test series against England starting from August 1. With Bhuvneshwar Kumar suffering an aggravated lower back condition and Jasprit Bumrah nursing an injured left-thumb, both the front line seamers are most likely to sit out of the first Test. But ahead of the five-match Test rubber, fast bowler Ishant Sharma believes the current Indian pace attack has the ability to lead the visitors to a series win against the Joe Root’s England.

“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,” Ishant said in an interview.

Not only Ishant Sharma but also the players like Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Shardul Thakur feature in India’s Test squad pace attack for the five-match series, starting August 1 at Edgbaston, Birmingham.




After 2007 India never won the test series against England. “We have a pretty good chance to win a series in England and Australia, because of the kind of attack we have,” he asserted.

The pace bowler feels English wicket will help the Pacers as they can bowl the long spells. “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,” Ishant observed.




Ishant admitted he didn’t focus much on the fitness during his initial days of career but later he realised the importance of it. “I was not the one who really believed in training. I didn’t have too much knowledge about training. So I wasn’t training that much. When I went home, I was not doing anything. Just relaxing. I think that’s the point, I changed my life and improved my cricket skill level,” he said.
“We have become so much fitter because there is so much knowledge, and there is so much contribution from everyone. If you want to play a good amount of cricket for the country, you need to work hard. You can’t just bowl or just bat,” Ishant said.

“You need to go into the gym, go running, look after your recovery system, your diet and everything,” the speedster added.

The Indian pacer is just a month away to celebrate his 30 th birthday felt that he has matured a lot as a fast bowler in the 11 years of his Test career.




“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,” the pacer, who has scalped 238 wickets from 82 Test matches, said.

“You need to adapt, and bowl according to the situation,” Ishant added.