Ishant and Ojha seek revival amid competition

On a charming day in the port city of Chittagong, two young men had reasons to look back fondly at their recent past and be a touch apprehensive about the future. Ishant Sharma stood at the far end of the seamers' net with the team jacket worn over the track suit. Pragyan Ojha too, stood, hand held across his chest, behind the spinners at the spin net. Both weren't bowling; they were watching Sreesanth and Amit Mishra bowl.

Sreesanth was almost harassing Rahul Dravid with a probing spell of seam bowling. A couple of incutters thudded into the pads, one legcutter burst up to hit the handle and another took the edge. Dravid was gracious in praise, shouting out 'Beauty' after one delivery opened him up and Sreesanth let out a shy smile. It was a nice little moment.

Almost reflexively, you looked out for Ishant, who was chatting far away with a team-mate, and wondered how sportsmen fight insecurity. Especially the young ones. Take Ishant; it wasn't far back when he was showered in the arc lights of success and just like that, one day, they went out. It, of course, is the way of life and many of us face those moments of self-doubt, have thoughts of an uncertain future, worry about the dreaded chat with the boss, but our story doesn't play out in public. Sportsmen's stories do.

Ishant lost his ODI spot and is now watching Sreesanth steal his Test spot right under his nose. It wasn't far back that Ishant made his debut in this country. Soon after, he got into a compelling duel with Ricky Ponting that shot him into fame, brought him the IPL moolah and sealed lucrative advertising deals. The high action, the velocity of his deliveries, the bustling run-up and even his broken voice that Matthew Hayden so infamously imitated in a radio talk show became talking points, but it didn't take long for people to start noticing the warts.

The verdict it still out on what affected Ishant's confidence and his game. Was it too much cricket? Was it too much ODI cricket? Should he have just played Tests for some time? Was it because of the desire emanating from a perfectly understandable rationale to have variations in the bowling? He had a big offcutter when he burst on the scene, but these days it doesn't jag back as much. However, he has a better control of the delivery that shapes away (or straightens) outside off stump.

You could understand why he wanted the one which left the right-hand batsmen but in the process of developing it, he certainly lost that big offcutter that cut Ponting into half and filled Youtube videos. You could see the same occurring with Praveen Kumar. He had a lovely inswinger when he started out, but in trying to get the ball to leave, he almost lost the one that swung in. It's a tricky process that takes time to master - even Kapil Dev lost his outswinger in pursuit of the incoming delivery for ODIs, and took a couple of years to regain it - but when you are young, and the competition is strong, you can't afford to take too much time.

Or was it because of the confusion over the lengths? His natural area was short of good length but he struggled with it on dull subcontinental tracks. He started to try to pitch the ball full but it didn't come as naturally to him and he started to float overpitched deliveries. According to experts like Wasim Akram, the wrist position at the delivery wasn't as impressive as before, and he lost pace as well. Nothing was going right and there was a real danger of losing a genuine talent.

Indian cricket has lost the likes of Maninder Singh, L Sivaramakrishnan and Sadanand Viswanath in the 80s, and it can't afford a repeat with Ishant. The bowling coach Eric Simons joins the team tomorrow and Ishant will hope it marks the beginning of his turnaround. Today, both Ishant and Ojha bowled later in the nets session but neither bowled as long as their competition.

Unlike Ishant, Ojha isn't such a natural talent and that seems to be hurting him. He has done his best at every opportunity given to him but the seal of approval is yet to come. Mishra looks to have more weapons to take wickets, and the selectors have so far see-sawed between the two. Ojha bowled well against Sri Lanka, taking nine wickets in two Tests; Mishra excelled in his first Test against Australia, taking a five-for, but grabbed only seven wickets from his last three Tests. If you want your second spinner to bowl tight and apply pressure, you have Ojha to do the job, and if you want that spinner to attack and get wickets, you have Mishra. That's the perception, at least.

Will Ojha strive to change that, or position himself in alignment with the perception and let the team decide what they want out of the second spinner? Time will tell.