Ishant worked on wrist position and in bowling fuller lengths at Sussex, says Jason Gillespie
Every time Indian pacer Ishant Sharma bowls, a debate begins: 'Should he bowl slightly fuller? He bowls just a fraction short or back of a length. The debate began even on Friday when Ishant started his spell against debutants Afghanistan at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Ishant, who is fresh from a county stint with Sussex after going unsold in the 2018 IPL auction, was bowling full and swinging it into the Afghanistan openers.
There were even comparisons on air of him and former Aussie pacer Jason Gillespie and how they both were similar in terms of the lengths they bowled. As it turned out, it was Gillespie, head coach at Sussex, who had worked with Ishant in county cricket on the latter's wrist position and emphasised on bowling fuller lengths to reap more benefits.
On Friday, Ishant kept bowling fuller lengths and the rewards were there for all to see. He castled two batsmen with full in-swinging deliveries and most of his deliveries were targeted at the stumps.
"We spoke a lot about a fuller length attacking off stump - batsman’s knee-roll height. He also worked hard on the position of his wrist at the point of release. His natural delivery comes back into the right-hander.
"He worked on the ball that held its line and got batsmen playing at the ball thinking it was going to come back and hit the stump," Gillespie told Sportskeeda on Friday.
Gillespie further explained that they also worked on Ishant's bowling from various angles using the crease.
"And we spoke about bowling from different spots on the crease to create different angles when he released the ball," he added.
Ishant has certainly become richer in experience post his Sussex stint.