Harmison believes this Aussie bowler has influenced Ishant’s performance

Former England bowler Steve Harmison said that he is impressed with Ishant Sharma’s performance in the ongoing India-England Test series and he claims that this improvement is due to the influence by an Aussie bowler with whom Ishant spent time in the recent days.

Speaking with an online news portal Harmison said that before this Test series, Ishant played some games in the county cricket representing Sussex. And according to Harmison, during his stint with Sussex, Ishant got an opportunity to spend time with former Australian bowler Jason Gillespie who is the coach of Sussex.

Speaking about the improvements in Ishant, Harmison said that the right-hand fast bowler now gives more confidence to the captain while earlier the captain would be apprehensive about when to use Ishant.

The former England pacer also noted that Ishant’s wrist position has improved a lot and it is due to the work Ishant has put in in the nets.

Harmison gave the example of Liam Plunkett who also worked with Gillespie for about three or four years in county cricket and he completely changed the way he bowled. Plunkett later made a comeback in the England team and now is a regular member of their ODI and T20I squad.

The former England bowler was full of praise for Gillespie. He said that he has played with Gillespie for some time in the past and he is very simple in his approach. He knows how to bring the best out of an individual.

There is plenty of substance in Harmison’s claim as Ishant was outstanding for Sussex in the county cricket. Although he didn’t pick a lot of wickets, he bowled some good spells and he has brought that confidence in this series as well.

Ishant is the highest wicket-taker in this series for India and his five-wicket haul in the first Test had opened up the game for India.