Indian pacer bowler Ishant Sharma has now revealed that he hardly slept for four hours in the last couple of days but still managed to keep India in the fight as he picked up three wickets in the first Test. Sharma stated that he struggled to deal with a jet-lag.
Notably, Sharma was not in the plans of the New Zealand Test series as he had suffered multiple ligament tears in the right ankle during a Ranji Trophy match. However, as soon as he was declared fit, he travelled 24 hours and arrived in New Zealand some 72 hours before the start of the first Test.
“I am not happy because I have not slept for two days and I was struggling a lot today (with my body). The way I would have liked to bowl, it did not happen. They asked me to play and I played. Anything, for the team,” said Ishant as quoted by PTI.
The cause of his struggle was the lack of proper sleep.
“Not that I wasn’t happy with my bowling. I wasn’t happy with my body as I could only sleep for 40 minutes last night and day before the Test match, I slept for three hours,” Ishant further said as he highlighted his struggle with the jet lag.
“The more you can recover (from jet lag), the better effort you can put in on the ground. There’s no better recovery than sound sleep. The sounder your sleep is, the better your body will respond on ground,” the tall pacer said.
Ishant also stated that he did not even think about playing the New Zealand Test series when he sustained the injury but credited the National Cricket Academy (NCA) staff who helped his on his way to a speedy recovery.
“All credit goes to NCA support staff as they worked really hard with me. We never really thought I have to play a Test because my MRI shows I had a complete ligament tear, not one but two tears. People said ‘he is out for six weeks’,” he recalled.
“I didn’t have any target that I have to play a Test. I thought ‘okay, if it’s possible to play, I will play but if it’s not, there’s hardly anything I could have done’. Because the way I got injured, I don’t think it had happened with anyone. But if you are destined to get injured, you can slip in toilet too,” he added.
When quizzed about when was it that he felt he could recover in time, the speedster stated the moment he bowled 21 overs in two days at NCA in Bengaluru to test his fitness made him realise that he could perhaps get fit in time for the first Test.
“I bowled 21 overs in two days at NCA and I got to know I am fit and that’s why I came here and bowled one and half hours to check if I am alright. After travelling for almost 24 hours, it took a big toll on the body,” he stated.
“It was not reversing. Actually, nothing was happening. I was not holding the ball on seam and trying different things. Kookaburra after 40 or 50 overs, seam really gets soft, so you need to come hard and hit the length very hard. I started bowling cross-seam,” he said about the match situation.
“Actually, wicket became slow. It had a tennis ball bounce at the start but when we bowled, there was no seam movement. Also for first-timers, the problem in Wellington is getting used to wind which is a big factor. People actually have little idea how to bowl with or against wind.”
Ishant also seemed confident about India making a comeback in the match.
“We have confidence that we can make a comeback. That has been the speciality of this team.”