'I was trying to upset him' - Ishant Sharma on mimicking Steve Smith during 2017 Test series in India

The four-match Test series between India and Australia in 2017 was one of the fiercest contests between the two sides. It all went down to the fourth and final Test match which the hosts won to famously seal the series by 2-1. Apart from the contest in the middle, there was a lot going on between the players as well to upset each other’s rhythm.

During the second Test of the series, India were itching to make a comeback and the desperation was visible on their faces. Steve Smith, as usual, was proving to be the thorn in the flesh for them and Ishant Sharma, during one of the innings, hilariously mimicked the then Aussie skipper. Smith’s habit to nod his head after facing every ball is well known to everyone and Ishant clearly mocked him to leave the batsman bemused.

The Indian pace bowler opened up on the incident while talking to Mayank Agarwal on the series ‘Open Nets with Mayank’ on bcci.tv. Ishant Sharma has revealed that he was just trying to upset Smith and make him uncomfortable as India knew they would win the match if they dismiss him.

“I was just trying to upset him and was thinking how to do it, I was just trying to get him out of the comfort zone, I was just trying to make him uncomfortable. It was a close game, people tend to do things after getting swayed by emotions, you do anything to upset the batsmen, whatever I could do to upset him, I did that, Smith upsets the bowlers a lot, we know if we dismissed him, then we could go on win the match,” he said.

Just don’t get banned, Virat’s suggestion to Ishant

Ishant Sharma also stated that India skipper Virat Kohli had told him to be aggressive against Steve Smith and had given freedom to do anything. But he had also cautioned him against getting banned. “Virat is an aggressive caption, he loves it whenever you show aggression, he just said do whatever you want to, just don’t get banned,” Ishant further added.

The Delhi pacer’s weird face became a meme material on social media and after the incident, even Kohli was left in splits.