Happy Birthday Ishant Sharma: Son of AC Mechanic, who defeated elders with his height and speed

By Cross Talk India Team Last updated Sep 2, 2025

Born on 2 September 1988 in Delhi, Ishant Sharma’s father Vijay Sharma used to work to fix the air conditioner. The father used to take AC on the head and take it to 4-5 floors. This work was also such that it used to be done only during summer time. The whole family had to spend a year on these four-five months earnings.

Growing up amidst financial constraints, Ishant Sharma started playing cricket at the age of 14. Ishant and Virat Kohli also played junior cricket. During this time, he used to get 150 rupees daily as allowances. This reduced the economic burden on the family to some extent.

Due to long stature, Ishant used to get unexpected bounce on Indian pitches many times. Ishant, who impressed everyone with his bowling, made his Ranji Trophy debut at the age of 18. When Ishant was just 19 years old, he also got a chance in international cricket.

In the initial stage of his career, lean Ishant started a new phase of natural fast bowling in Indian cricket with his pace, bounce and passion. He left a good impact and money also started getting well. It is said that one day brought speakers of 42 thousand from Ishant Mall. He gave 30 thousand rupees to the shopkeeper. The remaining 12 thousand rupees were to be given to the father at the time of delivery of the speakers.

When the father came to know that the son had spent such a thick spending on the speakers, he told Ishant’s mother that he was thinking of taking a scooter, but the son spent so much on the speakers. It was clear that even though Ishant had started earning well now, the father still had a value of one penny.

The Australian team came to play a Test series of four matches on a tour of India in 2008. Ishant Sharma played all the matches. He was joint number-1 bowler to take the most wickets in the series. Ishant took 15 wickets with an average of 27.07. Harbhajan Singh also took the same wickets.

In January 2008, hardly anyone can forget the India-Australia played in Perth, in which Ishant had a brilliant spell of nine overs during the second innings. Ishant had greatly harassed Ricky Ponting at his steak length and fast pace. Finally Ishant dismissed Ponting.

Ishant Sharma was the leader of Indian cricket pace attack for a long time. He was also called work-humors. It was Ishant’s ability to bowl continuously. However, career fluctuations also continued and Ishant continued to struggle with lack of continuity several times. Ishant, who bowled at a speed of 90 miles per hour on the initial stage of the career, gradually decreased. In 2012, Ishant played five matches in Test cricket, but could take only seven wickets. However, he made a brilliant comeback in 2014, taking 38 wickets in eight matches.

In February 2014, Ishant Sharma took 9 wickets against New Zealand in the Auckland Test. However, Team India lost the match by 40 runs.

In July 2014, Ishant Sharma took seven wickets against England at Lord’s. On the basis of his brilliant performance, India won the match, but Ishant missed the 2015 ODI World Cup due to a knee injury. The next year, his journey from white ball cricket ended.

Ishant Sharma played a total of 11 Tests in the year 2018, taking 41 wickets with an average of 21.80. The following year, he committed 25 victims in 6 Tests, but after 2021 he could never get a chance in the Test team again.

Looking at Ishant Sharma’s Test career, he took 311 wickets with an average of 32.40 in 188 innings of 105 matches. During this, he took five or more wickets in the innings 11 times.

Ishant played 80 ODIs for India, with 115 wickets with an average of 30.98, while in 14 T20 matches he hunted eight.

Ishant Sharma took 486 wickets in 154 matches of first class career. At the same time, he has 192 wickets in 135 List-A matches. Ishant Sharma was awarded the ‘Arjuna Award’ in the year 2020 due to his outstanding performance in cricket.

Ishant is only India’s second right -hand fast bowler after Kapil Dev who has taken 300 wickets in Test cricket and played 100 or more Test matches.