ENG vs IND 2018, First Test: Ishant Sharma Reveals The Secret Behind His Stunning Five-Wicket Haul

If the third day of the Edgbaston Test belonged to the bowlers, then there is absolutely no denying that Ishant Sharma was the pick of all. The pacer took his 8th five-wicket haul as India bowled out England for 180 in their second innings.

Ishant had bowled his heart out in the first innings too. However, he could not get much purchase from the wicket, finishing the innings with just a solitary wicket to his name. However, in the second innings, he ripped the heart out of England’s middle order. The Delhi star took four wickets in the space of 17 balls to put England on the mat. He finished the innings with five for 51, leaving India needing to chase down 194 for a first ever win at Edgbaston.

One of the reasons behind Ishant’s tremendous turnaround was the decision to bowl from around-the-wicket to left-handers. With his ability to swing the ball away from them, Ishant could draw them into the shot with the angle and get the ball to swing away. As a result, he ended up dismissing Dawin Malan and Ben Stokes.

Speaking after the day’s play, he revealed that he decided to bowl from around-the-wicket on bowling coach Bharat Arun’s insistence.

“First innings, we wanted to take the ball away from the left-handers. I start over the stumps but when the ball started to do things I came around. In the bowling meeting we spoke and bowling coach told me to straight away come round the stumps because the batsman finds it tough to play from that angle because when my ball starts to swing then it is difficult for left handed batsmen.” Ishant revealed.

He further said that the county stint also helped him. Earlier this year, he represented Sussex. The lanky pacer played four First-Class games and picked up 15 wickets for his side. He also played in the Royal London games, picking up eight wickets in six matches.

“Playing County cricket helped me a lot. It was a good experience and I enjoyed it a lot. I played for Sussex, to bowl with Duke’s ball was good. The good thing was I had overs behind me. I played four matches for Sussex but I bowled nearly 250 overs in that. I played one-dayers, too,” he said.

Ishant is now confident the batsmen led by skipper Virat Kohli would do their job.

India began their chase on a poor note. They kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and were 5 down for just 78. However, Kohli is holding firm from one end and would hope that his partner Dinesh Karthik give him good company. India finished day three on 110 for 5 and still need 84 to seal the game.

“I think the tough period is gone. The wickets in England aren’t very helpful to be honest, it is all down to sun god. If sun is out there is no problem. It is problematic only when it is cloudy and then swing starts. The ball’s seam also stays hard for only 40 overs. So the effort is to lose as few wickets as possible in 40 overs and that’s what the plan is for batsmen,” he said.

“[Kohli being there] gives us a lot of confidence but at the same time DK’s positive intent has also given as confidence. Virat has scored 150 in the last innings and DK got out but you can see that he has positive intent and everything. Losing five wickets doesn’t mean much because we got their batsmen quickly as well. But cricket is such a game that you can chase down small totals easily with one big partnership,” he added.