Ishant Sharma hopeful of being India’s fourth pacer in World Cup

With Virat Kohli confirming that the World Cup probables have been all sorted out barring one or two places, most of the fringe names would be thinking that their World Cup dream is over. However, 30-year-old Sharma is still harbouring dreams of travelling to England in May. 

The once ODI bowler has largely been limited to the longest format of late with his last ODI coming as back as in January 2016. With the emergence of Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hardik Pandya, and the others, India’s once spear-heading bowler has fallen out of favour. And the Delhi man has blamed it on the "perception" surrounding him being a Test specialist. 

"I'm a positive guy and always think something good is going to happen. I have opportunities to avail in this IPL. The Indian team is still looking for a fourth seamer. Hopefully, I am the fourth seamer in that World Cup team," said Ishant during an open media session of IPL franchise Delhi Capitals, reported TOI.

"I think perception has played a big part in me not being in the limited-overs setup. It is something that players have been dealing with, to be honest; but I don't know frankly from where these perceptions emerge. They give us tags like 'he is a Test bowler', 'he is a T20 bowler', white ball bowler, red ball bowler and so on," said Sharma, who would be banking on his good performance in IPL to break into India's set-up.

Sharma, who has played 80 ODIs so far and picked up 115 wickets at an average of 30.98, also stated that "anyone who bowls well with the red ball is good enough to play the shorter formats".