World Cup 2019: Ishant Sharma joins Team India reserves for the tournament

Ishant Sharma made his ODI debut in 2007 against South Africa and has played 80 games in the format thus far. However, it has been more than three years since the tall and lanky speedster from Delhi last donned the national colours in the 50-overs format. He is one of those unlucky Indian cricketers, who haven’t been a part of a World Cup squad despite being in the scheme of things for more than a decade.

Nevertheless, the fortunes seemed to have turned for the 30-year-old seamer and there is a glimmer of a hope that he’ll go on and play the most-awaited World Cup in England and Wales, starting Thursday, May 30. The experienced campaigner has been added in the Team India’s reserves along with the likes of Rishabh Pant, Ambati Rayudu and Navdeep Saini.

According to a report in The Times of India (TOI), Ishant has been considered as a secondary option even in the reserve list after Saini. As of now, India have Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah as the specialist fast bowlers in the World Cup squad.

Ishant Sharma has been impressive of late

As far as the right-arm pacer’s current run is concerned, he has been in stupendous form, representing the Delhi Capitals (DC) in the 2019 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). In 11 matches, Ishant has picked up 10 wickets at an economy rate of 7.65. His best figures of 3/38 came against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the team’s final round-robin match at the Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi.

Sharma has also drawn praises from Capitals’ assistant coach Mohammad Kaif, who said that the bowler has added some useful variations to his repertoire. “He is bowling different types of slower balls, there are the cutters, the slower bouncers, so it just shows that he has many weapons in his armoury now,” Kaif had mentioned in a Capitals’ press conference.

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