I wish I had a mentor to give me more bowling knowledge: Ishant Sharma

Indian veteran pacer Ishant Sharma is out of the Indian squad and has been doing commentary for Jio Cinema recently. The 34-year-old opened up about his career and shared some of his regrets.

During a discussion, one of the questions asked to him was whether he has any regrets in his career, and he replied by stating that the only regret he has is that he didn't have a mentor who could've given him more knowledge about his bowling.

He also expressed regret over not playing County cricket earlier. For most of his career, he focused more on what the team told him to do than what he should do.

“My only regret is I wish I had a mentor to give me more bowling knowledge. I wish I played county cricket earlier. For most of my career, I was more concerned about what the team was telling me. I never thought about what I should do,” Ishant said in a show on Jio Cinema.

Ishant admitted arguing about unfavourable conditions during matches and even sat out. 

“I started arguing over things like, ‘Why are we playing a Test match on a wicket like this?’ I even sat out matches because of that. The number of Test wickets I took (311) could have been higher,” he added.

On speaking if he was disappointed about not being a part of the 2011 World Cup, Ishant responded with a firm "No." He explained that he was a part of the 2015 World Cup team but didn't get to play for his own reasons.

He recalled a Test match in Melbourne where his knee started hurting. Knowing that the World Cup was just around the corner, he decided not to play. Unfortunately, his right knee only worsened, and he couldn't recover for the tournament. 

“I remember we were playing a Test match in Melbourne, and it was Mahi bhai’s final Test, but people didn’t know at the time. My knee started hurting, so I said I wouldn’t play because the World Cup was coming up. Shami and Umesh were new at the time, and Shane Watson was dominating them. I didn’t feel good about that, so I told the physio to give me an injection,” he added.