With just four wickets in the series, Ishant Sharma has very little to be excited about. The lanky fast bowler has been economical but not efficient enough. He still finds solace from the fact that his economy-rate of 2.67 for 81 overs has helped the bowlers at the other end to strike more frequently.
Speaking to the mediapersons on the eve of the fourth and final Test at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground here on Thursday, Ishant pointed at the state of pitches for his lack of success.
“As you saw in the last three Test matches, there was a lot of help for the spinners, so I have got very less bowling. It was only in the last match in Mohali that I got nearly 30 overs.
“Your role is to contain the flow of runs so that the spinners can attack from the other end. You got to hunt in a pack and bowl in partnerships. How you bat in partnerships, similarly you have in bowling. When you bowl in partnerships, you may not get wickets but the bowler at the other end gets wickets,” explained Ishant.
Asked to comment on Bhuvaneshwar Kumar’s success, he said, “I feel Bhuvi’s bowling is different to mine. Bhuvi is more effective with the new ball because he can swing it both ways. I don’t get much swing in Indian conditions and I have to wait for the ball to get a bit old so that it reverse-swings. Only after that I can attack but till then my role is to contain.”
Ishant conceded that home advantage had played a big part in winning the series with a match to spare.
“When we last went to Australia, we struggled a lot and everybody said we can’t play away from home. Now you can see that even Australia can’t play here. So the advantage of home conditions is quite big. Our home conditions suit spinners and Australia is weak against the spinners. So that has been a big advantage for us.”
