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Ishant becomes 255th Indian to play Test cricket

By Qaiser Mohammad Ali

IANS

Dhaka : With his debut, teenaged medium pacer Ishant Sharma Friday became the 255th Indian to play Test cricket Friday.

The second and final Test match against Bangladesh here is only the seventh first-class match for the 18-year-old Delhi right-armer. He will, however, have to wait for his turn to bowl as Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar won the toss and decided to put India to bat at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.

The other Indian player who had played Test cricket at an early age was Parthiv Patel, the Gujarat wicketkeeper who made his Test debut without playing a single first-class match. That match was against England at Nottingham in August 2002.

In 1989, talented medium pacer Vivek Razdan also played his first Test without appearing for Delhi in the Ranji Trophy. That was on the tour of Pakistan, where he made his debut in Faisalabad in November.

The slightly built Sharma has taken just 26 wickets -including a solitary five-wicket haul in first-class cricket – before donning the India cap.

He plays for the Rohtak Road Gymkhana Club in local cricket in Delhi. He learnt the nuances of the game from coach Shravan Kumar.

Sharma should consider himself lucky to be playing a Test match so early. He was flown in here as a replacement for injured pacer Munaf Patel, who had a back spasm just before the first Test started in Chittagong May 18.

The talented six feet four tall Sharma made his Ranji Trophy debut in 2006-07. He got an SOS from the Indian team soon after the season was over and found himself on the plane to Chittagong Sunday, when he joined the team during the drawn first Test.

He did not play in Chittagong as he reached there late, and Vikram Raj Vir Singh replaced Patel in the XI. But on Friday Sharma was preferred to Singh, who did not impress in Chittagong.

Virender Sehwag was the lone Delhi player in the Indian team for the one-day international series, but there was no representation from the capital for the Test series. Sharma has filled that void.

The previous Delhi medium pacer to play for India was left-armer Ashish Nehra. He is currently out of favour following a spate of injuries and the rise of other pacers.