Bowling Style
A right arm fast-medium bowler, the speed of Sharma's bowling has diminished since he emerged on the international scene, although in 2008 he bowled a delivery at over 152 kilometres per hour (94 mph). Such occurrences were not the norm as his pace dropped to around 130 km/h (81 mph), but under Eric Simons (who was India's bowling coach from 2010 to 2012) Sharma was regularly bowling in excess of 140 km/h (87 mph) when India toured Australia in 2011/12. According to India's former bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad he is amongst the most dedicated bowler in India's set up.
Simons noted height was a factor in the length Sharma bowled, saying "For Ishant to hit the stumps, he has to pitch it fuller, and that means the batsman has more chance of keeping it out". Former West Indies fast bowler Courtney Walsh identified two problems with Sharma's bowling action: his head drops when the ball is delivered and the position of his wrist varies. The first takes some of the speed out of the delivery, while the second reduces the chance of the ball seaming and swinging. The former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar suggested that the lack of movement in Sharma's bowling discouraged him from pitching the ball up so instead he tends to bowl short. The slower pace of his bowling when he pitches the ball up may explain why the yorker is not an effective delivery for him. Manjrekar went further, saying that "for all his talent and commitment he just does not take enough wickets"; when the remark was made in January 2012, Sharma had a bowling average of nearly 37 from 43 Tests.
Read more about this topic: Ishant Sharma
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