Ishant Sharma remembers how MS Dhoni was furious at him

It was the 5th day of October in the year 2010. A special day for many Indian fans, as they clinched a victory from the jaws of the mighty Aussies. In the first Test of the 2010-11 Border Gavaskar trophy, Australia won the toss and decided to bat first. Powered by humongous knocks from Shane Watson and Tim Paine, the Aussies managed to score 428 runs in the first innings.

India replied with 405 runs, owing to top-class innings from Sachin Tendulkar and Suresh Raina. In the second innings, Indian bowlers bowled brilliantly as Aussies were bundled out for just 192 runs. The target of 216 was not very difficult to chase Ben Hilfenhaus and Doug Bollinger made things worse for India. One after the other the Indian batsmen surrendered in front of the lethal pace attack.

At 124/8, the game looked all but over for India. VVS Laxman was the only recognised batsman batting. And Ishant Sharma was out in the middle with him. But the tables turned on the kangaroos when the duo managed to build an 81-run partnership. Sharma, who is not known for his batting abilities, scored crucial 31 runs from 92 balls. In the recent episode of What the Duck Season 2, Ishant opened up on his partnership with VVS.

“Actually before that Test, there was an incident, contradictory to Virender Sehwag’s 60-yard statement, I was batting. So before that series, I practised a lot of batting. Gary [Gary Kirsten] used to take me. Gary always pushed me to bat. He said I have the talent. You know, you can be a good lower order batsman.

“So I practised very seriously. If there’s a bouncer, one may duck or some other stuff but my shot always flighted in the air. So that’s why Viru bhai said ‘He can hit 60 yards shot but all the way up in the air. But cannot hit 60 yards on the ground.’ to bat,” said the 28-year old.

“This was before that Test match, so Gary told me just one day prior to match I was too tired with bowling and all. So Gary told me, ‘I think you should bat.’ I said, ‘Gary no, I can’t bat. I think I am done. I can’t bat anymore with you.’ Then he told me, ‘See… you can’t away with the results. So you have to work hard, whatever you’re doing. Keep working hard!

“So he especially he made me practise tennis ball bouncers with a racket. Because then Mitchell Johnson was playing. Ben Hilfenhaus, Peter Siddle, even he was bowling quick. So after all this, after the nets, Gary especially, we had one on one session after everyone else had left. We were practising my batting for an hour. A bowler was practising batting. Even I was shocked as to what is happening,” he added.

When Dhoni was furious at Ishant

Ishant remembers how MS Dhoni was furious at him. “Even during that Test match, I was injured in the first innings. I was having a knee pain, my right knee got tight. So when I was supposed to bowl during the second innings, I took an injection every session. So I took 3 injections each at every session. I bowled then night watchman, when that time comes, everybody looks at me. Maahi [MS Dhoni ]

“Maahi [MS Dhoni ] bhai I can barely stand.’ Maahi bhai was like, no. So I told Nitin Patel our physio. I told him to speak. He supported me so Zak (Zaheer Khan) put night watchman pads on. And Zak was next to bat, he got out! Just as he got out Maahi bhai gave me that look. If your captain gives you that look what else can you do. My mistake!” he revealed.

About the partnership

Regarding the match-winning partnership, the lad from Delhi said: “Then next day morning, Test match was in trouble. Even Laxman was injured, so his runner was Raina. When I went for batting Laxman asked me if I was fine and I said yes. Also, Raina was there, he told me don’t run on Laxman’s call, look at me and run only when I call. Generally, when batsman of lower order plays then 4 balls are played by batsmen and 2 balls are played by the tail-ender. But Laxman said that we will take singles and I agreed.”

He continued the story saying, “After some time Mitchell Johnson started bowling bouncers. One almost kissing me from right ear and other almost kissing me from the left ear. And he literally bowled all six deliveries as bouncers. I told Laxman that you have to take care of him. I can’t control him anymore. Am I batting or fighting a war? Then Laxman agreed to play against Mitchell Johnson and I agreed to play the rest. In this way, we build a partnership. Actually, the confidence that Laxman showed in me and the belief in me, was a wonderful thing.”

This is how India won the first match of the two-Test series. The second Test was held at Bengaluru and unlike the first one, India won it quite comfortably, hence winning the series 2-0.