By IANS
New Delhi : Ishant Sharma’s performance in the Australian tour has raised expectations of many Indians and the young pacer would face the challenge of living up to it when he bowls at low and slow home pitches, fast bowling coach T.A. Sekar said.
Sekar, chief coach of the MRF Pace Foundation, said Ishant has immense talent and is learning the trade fast. But when he comes back to India, he will not be able to generate the same speed and bounce as he is getting in fast Australian pitches and that might put him under a lot of pressure.
“He is doing excellent. He has made great progress in this tour. And now people will have expectations from him. He was hitting 140-plus in domestic games and we knew that he was a special talent,” Sekar said while praising the youngster who rose to stardom in Australia.
“He is getting a lot of bounce and generating speed, but when he comes back to India, he will not get that. There will be expectations and too many people advising him. That’s when he will have to be careful. In our country success has too many fathers. He will have to tackle the pressure,” said Sekar.
He also said that Baroda pacer Munaf Patel should work on improving his lost speed.
“Munaf was regularly bowling 140-plus when he started. I don’t know why he chose to ball in the comfort zone of 120 these days. He was bowling at a good pace and he can still bowl at that speed,” Sekar said.
The bowling coach said India has a good pool of fast bowlers in the senior lin-up and there are few more prospects who will join the ranks in future.
“We have so many fast bowlers to pick from. It is outstanding. Injury is part and parcel of the game for a fast bowler but now we won’t have to rely on one bowler. They are options available.”
He named young Delhi pacer Pradeep Sangwan as the bowler to watch out for.
“He is a sharp left-arm pacer and brings the bowl into the right-hander. He is just 18 and is intelligent and he has all the qualities that you look for in a promising fast bowler,” Sekar said.