Ishant Sharma shares his views on going unsold at the Indian T20 League auction

The veteran Indian pacer Ishant Sharma has performed admirably for the Indian team in the longest format. However, his performances have not translated to the shortest format and the Indian T20 League. As a result, he has fallen off the radar in recent times.

In a recent interaction with the Hindu, Ishant opened up about going unsold in the cash-rich league and being dropped from the Indian team. The pacer said that he does not think too much about being dropped or going unsold. He stated that he enjoyed bowling in any game and did not give much thought to who he was playing for.

“To be honest, I have stopped thinking about all these things. Once I go back home, I have my family, they love me. I have my dogs, they don’t really care what I do on a field. I have my wife, my parents and my friends, they just see me as Ishant and not as a cricketer. I just enjoy my life. I don’t care about whether I am wanted or unwanted anywhere,” he said.

“I am still playing this game because I love playing cricket. When I started bowling fast, I did so because I enjoyed it, not because someone wanted or someone disliked me. Honestly, I don’t care about all these things and don’t want to care about it either,” he added.

I think that’s a very encouraging sign: Ishant Sharma

Speaking on a different subject, Ishant opened up about younger players wanting to play Test cricket. “I cannot say for sure but with my limited experience, especially in my team, there are bowlers who want to bowl 20 overs in a day and bowl fast. I think that’s a very encouraging sign, especially for my state team,” he said.

“I spoke with a few guys from Maharashtra and even they were asking such serious and sincere questions about improving their red-ball game and contributing more to their team, it’s very good to see that the talent wants to play days’ cricket. Perhaps that’s what made me feel that there is a lot of mis-perception about domestic cricketers. People generally feel youngsters don’t want to play days’ cricket but from whatever I have seen, they are keen on playing it,” he added.