Tall, lanky, and without too much meat on his body. That is precisely how one could describe Ishant Sharma, an almost aberration in the Indian side. He bowls quick enough to send the batsmen on a hopping spree, something that makes him unique to the land which is more famous for producing tweakers who garner their wickets by bowling on turning, dusty tracks, with players all around.

Ishant Sharma made his test debut against Bangladesh, but after one game against Pakistan, he was criticised by Sunil Gavaskar for being too young and immature for international cricket. Ishant’s reply was resounding; he bagged a five wicket haul in his very next game to lead the Indians to a series win. However, it was only on the tour to Australia in 2007-08 that the true strength of Ishant Sharma came to the fore, as he had the Australian captain going on a skipping spree as he failed to handle Ishant on a quick WACA track. Described as one of the quickest overs bowled by an Indian fast bowler, the wiry bowler from Delhi finally scalped the wicket of Ponting to a short ball that he edged to the slips.

Ever since then he has played in 18 tests, including the home series against Australia where he was named the man of the series for his excellent spells of bowling. His knock-out performances provided him a berth in the Kolkata Knight Riders for a whopping price of $950,000 something that won him a three-year long contract with the KKR.

His performances in the T20I format of the game haven’t been really excellent, as he has conceded runs at more than 8.5 per over and not picked up too many wickets. Even in the IPL and other domestic T20s, his average and the economy rate aren’t as great as he would like them to be. But Lambu – as he is popularly known as – has a long way to go given that he is only 21 years of age!