India tour of Australia: The leader in Ishant Sharma

Ishant led the way in placing his bat outside the dressing-room in a mark of respect to the late Hughes.

In Kohli’s absence, Ishant Sharma led the team out against CA XI in Adelaide. (Source: Express FILE)

Ishant Sharma, India captain. You try reading it in any way you can, but somehow the two just don’t seem to fit. Over the years, we’ve seen the lanky Delhi pacer in many avatars. The prodigal tearaway, the erratic apprentice, the frustrating talent, the Ricky Ponting nemesis, the enigmatic Test match-winner, the erroneous ODI death bowler and of late the leader of a young pace attack. But still India captain, even if only for one-and-a-half sessions of a practice match? Not many would have imagined that.

But when the two teams assembled at the Glenelg Oval on Thursday morning, India’s captain Virat Kohli was still mid-air, somewhere between Sydney and Adelaide. He was returning after attending Phil Hughes’ funeral in Macksville.

With Kohli absent, there were a few candidates in line to replace him. They ranged from Suresh Raina, who has led the country in 12 ODIs, the dependable Cheteshwar Pujara, R Ashwin and even Shikhar Dhawan, who has captained many an India A team before.

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But who should lead India out but Ishant. To his credit, he led the way in placing his bat outside the dressing-room in a mark of respect to the late Hughes.

He also called out frantically to get the team management to arrange for black armbands for his team. And then on the field he took charge.

He gave the new-ball to Varun Aaron and Mohammad Shami, set fields for them, screamed out instructions and was the most vocal cheerleader in the camp, his distinctive guttural tone resounding across the Glenelg Oval. In between, he also managed to slip in a handful of overs.

When Karn Sharma was hit for a couple of sixes in his first couple of overs, Ishant was right by his side, calming him down, and then he even placed a short-cover for the leg-spinner, sending mid-on to the boundary. Karn’s first wicket came through a catch at short-cover.

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Then at the lunch-break, Ishant was the keynote speaker in the team huddle that he called for at the end of the first session. Ishant was doing everything he had seen his captains do over the years.

He might have struggled to sound as convincing as them in his performance, but you couldn’t blame him for trying on a day Ishant Sharma was India captain.

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