Ishant Sharma is India’s best Test bowler currently: Sudeep Tyagi

NAGPUR: Fitness has played a huge role in India’s current pace attack. The likes of Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have taken the India pace bowling to a different level and that’s one of the reasons that they are better than many talented Indian pacers in the past.
Former Indian seamer Sudeep Tyagi is one of those who struggled on the fitness front. He had decent pace and soon made it to the Indian team but couldn’t stay for long due to various reasons, including fitness.
Tyagi, who played 4 ODIs and 1 Twenty20 between 2009 and 2010, feels players have started taking training more seriously than in the past.“There has been a lot of talk about the change in training pattern over the last 2-3 years. But, I always feel that the basics remain the same. If you are a cricketer or an athlete, 70% is your ground work. You had to run in the past and even today it is the same. The only difference in the last 6-7 years is that players have started taking training more seriously,” Tyagi said in a conversation with sports presenter Dr Yash Kashikar on his Instagram live show ‘Say Yash to Sports’.

Tyagi gives credit of this to his former teammate and Indian captain Virat Kohli. “Ever since Virat has come, he has set a certain standard. That is actually a great thing and the results are there to see. Fitness is the team management’s first priority these days, so players have started taking it more seriously than the past,” he said.
The former Uttar Pradesh pacer said India have the best bowling line-up in world cricket at this moment. “There is no doubt that the combination (of Bumrah, Shami, Ishant and Umesh) have done really well for India. Although, I feel that we have produced good bowlers in the past as well. Probably the only difference in the past was that we did not win a lot overseas. So people did not talk a lot about them and it was not highlighted in the media,” said Tyagi.
“Whether it was Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan, RP Singh, Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth or others, we have always had very good bowlers. But, now that the team is winning more, it gets highlighted. But, if you ask me about the present scenario, I feel India has the best bowling line-up in world cricket,” he added.
The Uttar Pradesh seamer, who was also part of the Indian Tests squad, termed Ishant Sharma as India’s best Test bowler at the moment. “Over the last 2-3 years, his seam position has become really good. I have played with him, so I can say that he never backs off from working hard. That’s the best thing about him. And, his wrist position has become ultimate over the last two years, so that’s why I feel he is India’s best bowler in Test cricket right now. Also, I think Mohammed Shami will lead India’s bowling attack in Test cricket after Ishant if he stays fit,” TYagi, who also played for Saurashtra and Hyderabad, said.
Like many of his former teammates, Tyagi admires former Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni for his amazing cricketing brain. Tyagi has spent a considerable amount of time with Dhoni at the Chennai Super Kings set-up.
“There is no match to Dhoni’s cricketing mind. From the beginning, he used to think differently. Previous captains like Dada (Sourav Ganguly), Dravid, Anil bhai (Anil Kumble) everybody had their own style of going about things. But, Dhoni had a different genre altogether. He used to think out of the box and the first time I got a chance to play under him in 2009, I knew he thought differently from others. It always felt like he will become a very successful captain in the future, which he eventually did,” he said.
The 32-year-old said Dhoni should play the upcoming T20 World Cup. “I think Dhoni should come back to the side for the 2021 T20 World Cup. It will be good for him as well as the team because he brings in years of experience with him. Maybe after the WC he can take a call on his future,” he said.