I have stopped worrying about these things: Ishant Sharma on his limited-overs axing

While the Indian supporters celebrated captain Virat Kohli’s feat of becoming the first Indian batsman to hit a Test century in the pink ball Test, pacer Ishant Sharma also bagged another similar record. With his 5 for 22 in the first innings of the historic pink-ball Test against Bangladesh in Kolkata, Ishant also became the first Indian bowler to bag a fifer with the pink ball in Tests. The visitors folded for a paltry 106 as three Indian fast bowlers shared 10 wickets between them.

Ishant, who claimed another four scalps of the six Bangladesh wickets that tumbled on Day 2, is now nearing 300 wickets in the longer format as the third Indian bowler after Kapil Dev (434) and Zaheer Khan (311). However, the 31-year-old bowler continued to find himself out of the national selectors’ favor in the limited formats for the upcoming twin series against the West Indies next month. Ishant last played in a limited-over game for India in 2016 which was an ODI.

“Somewhere you do feel bad but I am at such a stage in my life I have stopped worrying about these things. They don’t affect me,” Times Now quoted the lanky pace bowler as saying over him getting snubbed for the T20I and ODI series against the Caribbeans.

Ishant Sharma happy with the ‘healthy competition’ among India’s fast bowlers

Ishant, meanwhile, was happy to share the burden with fellow quicks Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami in the series and hailed the “healthy competition” that prevailed between them. The five-wicket haul that Ishant picked in Kolkata was one that he claimed at home after 12 years.

“If there’s no competition and if you are comfortable with what you are doing. I mean (if) you don’t have someone to challenge your place, I don’t think you can perform this well,” Ishant, who is now four short of playing 100 Tests, said.

Ishant has been playing more of the second-fiddle role for India in Tests with the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Shami picking more wickets. In the recent Test series against South Africa, the Delhi seamer took only two of the 26 wickets that fell to the fast bowlers.

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