Out-of-form Ishant takes centrestage at the Challengers

It was less than a year ago when an upbeat Ishant Sharma landed in Nagpurwith India on the brink of a historic Test series win against...

It was less than a year ago when an upbeat Ishant Sharma landed in Nagpurwith India on the brink of a historic Test series win against Australia-having emerged as one of the most intimidating fast bowlers in the world. Still within his second season,the tall,lanky paceman had formed a potent new-ball combination in tandem with Zaheer Khan and had proved to be the scourge for a number of opposing batsmen-not the least for Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting. But after suffering an unfortunate reversal in fortunes over the last few months,it was a subdued Ishant-plagued with a number of doubts and low on confidence that arrived in the city for the NKP Salve Challenger Series on Tuesday evening.

The performance of the fast bowlers emerged as a sore thumb during Indias inglorious exit from the Champions Trophy. And Ishant,who picked up three wickets with an economy rate of 5.93 in the first two games,ended up losing his place for the final tie against the West Indies. With the Indian selectors now mulling over their fast bowling resources for the upcoming ODI series against Australia,it will be the 21-year-old Delhi pacemans performance that is set to take centre-stage,as the Challenger Series kicks off at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) stadium on Thursday.

While Team India was away contending with their fast bowling woes in South Africa; the out-of-favour duo of Sreesanth and Munaf Patel reignited their chances of a comeback with menacing spells during the Irani Trophy. And it is this pair that could pose a challenge to Ishant retaining his place in the Indian team for the Australia series. The likes of Sudeep Tyagi,L Balaji,Dhawal Kulkarni and Pankaj Singh meanwhile will be the other fast bowlers looking to catch the selectors eye during the Challenger Series.

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Incidentally,Ishant,who has bowled with an economy rate of 6.16 in ODIs this year,will lead the attack for India Red,captained by Subramanian Badrinath,with Munaf Patel,who ended up with a five-wicket haul for Rest of India earlier this week,against India Blue,led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni,in the opening match of the tournament.

Abhinav Mukund,who replaced Sachin Tendulkar,and Wasim Jaffer will open the innings for India Blue,which boasts of a batting line-up that includes Dhoni,Yusuf Pathan,Kedar Jadhav,Naman Ojha and Abhishek Nayar. Sreesanth,Ashok Dinda and Siddarth Trivedi will man the fast bowling responsibilities while Harbhajan Singh is the main spinner.

Captain Badrinath will have the pace of Sudeep Tyagi in addition to Ishant and Munaf at his disposal along with the off-spin of R Ashwin. Murali Vijay,Sunny Sohal,Shikhar Dhawan and Ravindra Jadeja will be the batsmen to look out for in India Red.

It was with the man-of-the-match series award against Australia that Ishant walked away from the VCA stadium last November. And it is with a reestablished reputation that he would be aiming to leave this time around.

Probable line-ups:

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India Blue: W Jaffer,A Mukund,N Ojha,K Jadhav,MS Dhoni,Y Pathan,A Nayar,H Singh,Sreesanth,A Dinda,S Trivedi.

India Red: M Vijay,S Sohal,S Dhawan,S Badrinath,I Jaggi,W Saha,R Jadeja,R Ashwin,I Sharma,M Patel,S Tyagi.