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Vijay, Ishant Sharma beat the inner demons on return

M Vijay and Ishant Sharma impress on their return to the Indian team after a gap

By Unnikrishnan
M Vijay and Ishant Sharma

Bengaluru, November 25: Few men understand what it takes to stage a comeback than Andre Agassi. The lost boy from Las Vegas overcame had slipped to world number 140 before emerging as one of the finest tennis champions of his generation.

Agassi wrote in Open - his raw and captivating autobiography - "He's yelling. It's not enough to hit everything the dragon (a ball machine) fires at me: my father wants me to hit harder and faster than the dragon. He wants me to beat the dragon."

This is not precisely a parallel but M Vijay and Ishant Sharma too had to beat their own dragons in the last few months.

Ishant has played 74 Tests and Vijay 52. But still they endure a nagging existential crisis.

When you mention 74 Tests it's easy to imagine a player close to his sunset days but mind you, the right-arm pacer is just 29.

He has some memorable moments too. Ishant has a match-winning spell at Lord's and has rattled a modern day great like Ricky Ponting in Australia.

But still he's not a certainty in the Indian team. In fact, juniors like Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have gone ahead of him in the pecking order and soon he may have also have to face contention from Jasprit Bumrah.

Several reasons have been discussed to find out his lack of numbers - wrong length to plain misfortune. But Ishant has remained a paradox and a pet of social media troll circle.

The parody account of Ishant - @SirIshantSharma - is hugely followed and in a way it's a reflection of people's contempt-laden attitude towards the Delhi pacer. How can a fellow this inconsistent appear in 74 Tests?

The Nagpur Test was his first match after the third Test against Australia in Ranchi where he came off with the effort of 1 for 100 from 31 overs. He certainly would not have featured in the Nagpur Test if Shami was not sustained a hip niggle.

At Nagpur, he maintained a perfect length and paired effectively with Umesh. It will not be an empty boast to say that India did not miss their frontline bowlers Shami and Bhuvneswar on day 1 of the second Test against Sri Lanka. Ishant took 3 for 37.

This is not to say that Ishant has become a shoe in to the Indian team but now the team management can look to a different option with some more confidence.

Unlike Ishant, Vijay is not subjected to online attack because he has enough numbers to back his claim for a permanent spot as Team India opener. But the rise of KL Rahul and the successful comeback of Shikhar Dhawan against Sri Lanka in August has made his task of getting back into the team that much harder and at 33 he is not getting any younger.

Vijay, who is returning from a wrist injury, too would not have found a place in the playing eleven had Dhawan opted out the series because of personal reasons.

At this stage of his life, it is unwise to let go chances. Vijay did not. He made the opportunity count with a timely hundred on Saturday (November 25) and now India have a pleasant problem of plenty ahead of the away leg starting with a tour to South Africa in January as far as the opening slot is concerned.

For now, Ishant and Vijay have beaten the demons.

Story first published: Saturday, November 25, 2017, 16:07 [IST]
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