ICC World Cup 2019: Ishant Sharma Drafted into Reserve Squad

With the lingering threat of injury, the BCCI have made some emergency additions to the team. One of those changes was drafting in pacer Ishant Sharma into the reserves team for the World Cup 2019.

Ishant Sharma debuted in 2007 against South Africa for ODIs. Since then, he has played 80 ODI games so far. However, the lanky fast bowler has not been given the national nod in three years. In fact, he has been fairly unlucky to miss out on an Indian berth in ODI cricket. He has not been included in a World Cup squad for ages, inspite of being in the frame.

But now, with a few injury concerns starting to haunt the team, it seems that his reckoning has arrived. The 30-year-old seamer has opened the Pandora’s Box for the second time and revealed a sliver of hope. The World Cup 2019 in England and Wales is set to commence on Thursday, May 30.

Joining him in the Team India reserve squad is Rishabh Pant, Ambati Rayudu and Navdeep Saini. According to a Times of India report Ishant Sharma is a secondary option even in the reserve list. It states that the tall seamer will be second fiddle to Saini. For now, India are banking on Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah to spearhead the seam attack in the World Cup 2019 squad.

Ishant Sharma has been in sublime form especially for IPL 2019 franchise, Delhi Capitals (DC). From 11 matches, Ishant has snatched 10 wickets at an economy of 7.65. He even boasts of best figures of 3/38, which was against the Rajasthan Royals (RR). This occurred during the team’s final league-stage match at home at the Feroz Shah Kotla.

DC Assistant coach Mohammad Kaif has been full of praise for the 30-year old Ishant Sharma. According to Kaif, the bowler added a few tweaks to his game and it helped massively.

“He is bowling different types of slower balls, there are the cutters, the slower bouncers, so it just shows that he has many weapons in his armoury now,” Kaif said in a Capitals’ press conference.