He was the best – Ishant Sharma on Virat Kohli’s captaincy

In the first half of the last decade, Ishant Sharma proved himself to be a very crucial weapon in the Indian bowling echelons. With Zaheer Khan walking into the evening of his career, the lanky Indian fast bowler validated his worth, rocking the English and Australian shores with his own brand of lateral movement infused with pace.

Ishant plied his trade for the Indian cricket team mainly under two captains, Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni. However, a lion’s share of his game time came under Dhoni, with Ishant playing 130 international fixtures under his reign while playing 199 games in all.

The pacer also played quite a few games under Virat, and talking on ‘Home of Heroes’, Ishant Sharma said, “He (Kohli) was the best. When Virat was captain, bowling was complete. When we were playing under Mahi bhai, we were in a transition phase. At that time, Shami and Umesh were new, and only I was there. Everyone else would rotate. Bhuvi was also new. There is no match for Mahi bhai as a communicator. But what he did was groom the bowlers and leave them with Virat. Shami and Umesh, over time, became different bowlers and then Jasprit came in. So, he got a complete package. The best thing he did was identify everyone’s traits, that he used to talk about one thing with one person and then let them be.”

Highlighting Kohli’s strengths as a skipper in detail, Ishant said, “First thing, he was aggressive. If you’re bowling with the new ball, you can concede 25 runs in five overs as long as you take two wickets.”

He further added, “The important thing was that he gave everyone defined roles. He used to tell me, ‘You have played enough matches, it’s now time for you to step up. Don’t bowl thinking you have to bowl in a particular area, now you have to find ways of getting wickets’. He went to Shami and said, ‘I know you can take wickets, but now I need you to bowl consistently. That you can bowl three overs as maidens’. He went to Bumrah and said, ‘This is your debut, you do what you do, but consistency is most important in Test cricket’. After 2021, I realized he wanted all of us to think out of the box.”