Team India batter Virat Kohli recently shared his childhood friend Ishant Sharma’s cricketing career. He said that the first thing that comes to his mind about the veteran pacer’s journey in international cricket is his iconic spell to former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting at
Perth in 2008 as well. However, 19-year-old Ishant made headlines with his terrific spell to Ponting at the WACA. He troubled the legendary batter with his tidy line and length and was able to claim his wicket in both innings as well.
While talking during a chat with the Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir, he said: “If you look at the generation of bowlers we’ve just had, when you talk about Ishant Sharma, the first thing that comes to mind is the spell at Perth, you know, Ricky Ponting, as a youngster. If you talk about his cricket career, Ishant Sharma, 100-plus Test matches for India. Zaheer Khan, these many wickets for India in Test cricket and a great 50-over World Cup.”
However, Virat Kohli also added that Mohammed Shami isn’t considered a topclass bowler on the basis of his exploits in T20 cricket as well. He stated that the speedster has got recognition because of his performance in the longer formats. Meanwhile, he also hailed India’s speedster Jasprit Bumrah as the most complete all-format bowler.
He said, “Mohammed Shami is not a world-renowned bowler because he is a great T20 bowler. He is one of the best Test bowlers in the world, and what he did in the 50-over World Cup adds value.”
“The USP of Siraj today is he wants to play Test cricket and he is hungry to do well in Test cricket and wants to win away from home. These are the values that other cricketers can look up to. When you speak about Bumrah, we don’t talk about his T20 yorkers. Yesterday, we were talking about this, he is the most complete all-format bowler. So, when you bring in the value of a cricketer, you cannot place that value separating the other two formats. If you really want to be valued as a cricketer, which I guess we all want to understand, our respect that we gain in the cricket world or with our peers, it’s always going to come with the other longer formats as well,” Virat Kohli concluded.
