Ishant Sharma urges India to win 3-0 and secure number 1 Test ranking

Even though India have already taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the ongoing series in West Indies, senior seam bowler Ishant Sharma believed that the work is not yet complete. With a victory in the final match at Port of Spain guaranteeing top spot in the ICC Test rankings, the 27-year old urged his team mates to lap up the opportunity and reach the summit.

Speaking to bcci.tv, Ishant revealed that the morale within the squad was running high and also heaped praise on Bhuvneshwar Kumar for his impressive spell which broke open the previous Test.

He declared, “We have won the series but the fourth Test is still to be played. Test cricket is such a format where you can never be complacent. We lead 2-0. But if win the next match, we will be the No.1 Test team in the world and there can be nothing better than that. This is a young team and we want to reach there (top spot). When we play the fourth Test, we will look to dominate, score runs, bowl the opposition out and win the Test.”

Looking back at the third Test in St Lucia, the right-arm pacer felt that the declaration came at the right time and credited the victory to the persistence shown by their bowling attack.

Ishant affirmed, “The plan was to score quickly and declare early. We wanted to bowl about 80 overs and discussed that in the team meeting. The results are out there for everyone to see as we stuck to our plans and executed them very well. The bowling group showed a lot of patience and discipline. We wanted to hit the right lengths and were ready to be patient to get those wickets.“

After losing the toss, India reached a formidable first-innings total thanks to their lower-order. After the third day was washed out, a result appeared unlikely before Bhuvneshwar picked up five wickets to eke out a 128-run lead.

Lauding the swing proponent for his amazing effort, Ishant enthused, “You saw how Bhuvneshwar Kumar ran through the line-up in just one spell and got five wickets in the first innings. If one bowler can do it, it is possible for others to do it too. We were confident. If you have to win a Test, you have to take 20 wickets and in the second innings, all the bowlers chipped in.”