England v India 2014: 7 reasons behind Ishant Sharma's 7/74 at Lord's

Not many share the privilege of possessing an unkempt canopy of tresses that blindshim during the follow-throughyet permitsfor a match-winning spell of 7/74 against an English side. Not many can brag about having Ricky Ponting as his bunny during his debut tour overseas. Hell, not many can win matches for two teams while playing for the same side. But Ishant Sharma has always been the enigma that even Sunil Narine cannot hope of conjuring.On one hand, he has materialized as Gods answer to BCCIs wrongdoings, as karmas response to the erstwhile BCCI President; on the other, he has scalped three five-wicket hauls in two tours. The rise and fall and fall and fall and rise of Ishant Sharma would illustrate a steady negative slope with sporadically scattered peaks, if it were to be graphed. Inconsistency has been his fraternal twin for so long a time that even Navjot Singh Sidhu has ceased to utter the word form in relevance to the lanky seamer.Youve got to be absolutely thick-headed if you do not believe that Ishant had summoned several avatars of Lord Krishna before taking the Duke from MS Dhoni in the second innings. And just like Arjuna was preached before the battle of Kurukshetra, Ishant was reminded of the necessities of his bowling short and doing his country yes, Krishna always likes to play the majority game a huge favor.I enlist, here, 7of them that sounded the least preposterous.

#1 Citizenship crisis

Ever since Ishant declined the Order of Australia and lifetime citizenship Down Under offered by the President, he has been regretting it. No Indian in the history of cricket had been presented with such honor for contributions to Australian cricket merely for one 30-run over against some James Faulkner.

Ishant had refused the honor in imitation to what Rabindranath Tagore did to his Knighthood years back. What had been a desperate act of patriotism then has been turning out to be absolute naiveté for the last few months. As Ishant began his run-up for Australia’s second innings, he knew that another wicketless Test would ensure cancellation of his Indian citizenship.

The stakes were high, the pressure insurmountable and expectations zero. That Ishant would no longer remain a citizen of India after Monday spread a glee across a billion faces. That, however, was not to be.

The magnitude of the Delhi lad’s performance lay in the fact that he did not yield to his predicament. Instead, divine blessings ensured, he emerged victorious.

https://twitter.com/dhairyakhale/status/391804280329338881

#2 Red Card for cricketers

The much hyped constitutional changes at the International Cricket Council (ICC) failed to improvise on the nature of penalties imposed on cricketers. In relevance to the FIFA World Cup that stole the media attention and TRPs away from the Sri Lanka’s tour of England, newly appointed ICC Chairman Narayanaswamy Srinivasan is rumored to have proposed a Red Card policy to be introduced in cricket, as well.

In order to dramatize the scheme further, it was proposed that Red Cards would be handed out to players at the discretion of their respective captains if suspected of underperforming, no matter willfully or not. A Red Card would mean that the concerned player would be absent from the team for the entire series.

Under such criteria, it was doubtless that Ishant Sharma, unrivalled in the absence of Rohit Sharma, would create history by becoming the very first cricketer to receive a Red Card. A stellar performance, therefore, was of urgent significance for Ishant to keep the Red Card at bay.

#3 The ignominy of letting his captain bowl

One of the few,er,numerous jokes on Google say: If your girl gives you as many chances as Dhoni has given Ishant Sharma, marry her.

Yet, it was time Dhonis persistence and perseverance yielded to Ishants obstinacy. Ishant has no master. Ishant is a free elf, er, bowler. Ishant will not take orders. Ishant will not take wickets.

But you must never underestimate the power of a common Indian skipper. The warning was short and effective: If you dont bowl short, if you dont get this guy Moeen, Im going to take you off. Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohliand I are far better bowlers. I will rather make Ajinkya Rahane roll his arm with Stuart Binny at the other end than go back to you.

That was before the last over to lunch; what ensued thereafter is what they call history.

#4 The benching conspiracy

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been the tarnished skipper of an even more tarnished Indian team for the last four years. What had kicked off in 2011 has continued even in 2014. The performances have improved, of course, but the results haven’t.

The career graph of Ishant Sharma exemplifies the Indian team’s recent fortunes. He has been several notches above his nadir for the last few months; he has even looked threatening enough to generate ‘ooh’s and ‘aah’s occasionally. Yet his wickets column signifies no improvement at all from the Dark Days of 2011.

Tossing him out of the playing eleven, therefore, would not have spawned much hue and cry across the nation. Further, Varun Aaron or Ishwar Pandey might have even produced a match-winning spell in the next Test and sidelined Ishant for more than a year.

The man with a giant Adam’s apple was not oblivious to such conspiracies when he got Alastair Cook caught behind from round the wicket. He knew he had to perform. He knew he had to save his career from the vengeance of the Stuart Binnys.

#5 Ashsish Nehra\'s reconsideration

A day after Ajit Agarkar made it public that he intends to do a Shahid Afridi and come back from retirement if Ishant is sent home from England, media rumor has it that Ashish Nehra, who had been contemplating an end to his international career, would look forward to making himself available to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) once the Ishant deal is sealed.

The onus certainly was on Ishant getting the boot once and, hopefully, forever. A secret survey among Indians has concluded that the agony of watching Ashish Nehra and Ajit Agarkar bowling in tandem is far less than periodical torture meted out by Ishant.

In an ideal universe, the guarantee of Ishant failing was always 100 percent. But ours is a flawed universe. Ishant does not fail here, when everyone wants him to. He, instead, picks up five wickets with five bouncers. Hah! Take that.

#6 Mane-kaded

“His hair falls on his face during his follow through. He’s got no chance of catching a ball that comes his way. I don’t understand why he doesn’t get a haircut or use a headband,” said many.

“I so want to get a haircut like him,” said none ever.

A lot has changed during the last six years for Ishant. He has, supposedly, matured into a line and length bowler, got his pace eaten away by zombie ants, and developed a refreshing habit of brushing his teeth twice daily. But then, his greasy hairstyle – if one may call that ‘style’ – has remained ever the same.

The only threat that can make Ishant dance naked on a busy thoroughfare in a snowy London evening would be that his locks were to be chopped off. Never mind whether he was born with it, the black mane has been Ishant’s identity ever since the world got to know him. Discarding his crown would be akin to losing the Rajput pride for Ravindra Jadeja. In no way, could he let that happen.

So, what’s the alternative? It’s simple, silly. Get wickets. And the man with the mane did just that. In the process, he won India the match.

#7 My Name is Ishant and I\'m not a batsman

An average of 38 would be considered decent for an opener or lower middle order batsman. But Ishant Sharma is not a batsman. Ishant is a bowler. He has played 50 Tests. He is 25 years of age. And,yes, he averages 38 with the ball.

At this rate, it wont be long before Shah Rukh Khan approaches him with a sequel to his superhit film My Name is Khan. In a parallel universe, he has already done it. In ours, he has to wait till Ishant retires or the BCCI serves him voluntary retirement,whichever comes earliest.

An SRK film is always screened worldwide, and Ishant could have never survived the embarrassment of it all. As he pointed to the sky after clearing up Ben Stokes, Ishant may have sent radio signals to SRK for delaying his film.

7/74 looked impressive enough, but the average improved only marginally to 37. Clearly, Ishant has many such performances in mind before he permits Shah Rukh to make money out of his humiliation.