Very few pacers have had the privilege of serving Indian cricket for the amount of time Ishant Sharma has. And yet this Delhi-born player has never played any of the five ICC Cricket World Cups which India played during the course of what is now an international career spanning over 16 years. Speaking to former Indian batter Aakash Chopra during his appearance on Home Of Heroes for Sports18 last year, Sharma had slyly dismissed having any regrets about the same.
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Although Sharma’s heroics are most often found in Test cricket, the 35-year-old has triumphed on a few occasions in white-ball formats, too. Sharma, who represented India in ICC World Twenty20 2009, ICC Champions Trophy 2009 and ICC Champions Trophy 2013 before participating in the first two editions of ICC World Test Championships, missed ODI World Cups in 2011, 2015, 2019 and 2023.
Having not played limited-overs cricket at the highest level since 2016, the Test specialist was the closest to partake in a World Cup in 2015. In fact, the 6’4″ player was part of the original 15-member squad but a knee injury ruled him out to make way for Mohit Sharma.
“Hum Melbourne mein Test match khel rahe the. Main, Shami aur Umesh bowling kar rahe the aur Mahi bhai ka last Test match tha woh. Toh mere jab knee mein dard hua toh maine bola, ‘Chalo bhai, World Cup hai, main nahin karunga’ [We were playing a Test match in Melbourne. Me, Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav were bowling and it was MS Dhoni’s last Test match. So, when I felt a pain in my knee, I decided to not bowl any further due to an impending World Cup],” Sharma told Sports18.
For the unversed, apart from eating painkillers, Sharma used to take an injection on his knee before each session in order to continuing bowling during the third Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2014/15 Test. Bowling 32 overs across five sessions in the first innings damaged his knee even further. Hence, ruling him out of the subsequent Test and the World Cup.
Having never really cemented his spot in limited-overs cricket, Sharma had played only four ODIs between the start of 2010 and 2011 World Cup. Quite similarly, he bowled in only five ODIs between the start of 2014 and 2015 World Cup. That being said, his height, pace and accurate bowling could’ve earned him a wild card entry to a World Cup being played in Australia and New Zealand. Co-incidentally, his comeback and last ODI series had also come down under the following year.
Ishant Sharma Had Bowled A Game-Changing Over In ICC Champions Trophy 2013 Final
On the verge of losing another knockout match in an ICC tournament with England requiring 20 runs off 16 balls in 2013 Champions Trophy final, Ishant Sharma had turned the tables within two deliveries.
Chasing a 130-run target in a rain-affected 20-over contest at Edgbaston, England were reduced to 46/4 in the ninth over before Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara’s 53-ball 64-run fifth-wicket partnership.
Having already leaked a six and two wides in the 18th over, Sharma attempted a slower ball to disobey the then captain MS Dhoni. That said, going against Dhoni didn’t matter at all as Morgan hit a slower one straight to Ravichandran Ashwin inside the circle. While the bowler and the fielder remained the same, it was Bopara’s turn to walk back to the pavilion on the following delivery.
Sharma’s dual strike came at a time when India were desperate for wickets. In spite of spinners successfully putting curbs around English batters, Dhoni’s move of bowling Sharma as the only pacer in the last four overs had eventually worked wonders for India.
