Ishant Sharma's childhood coach Sharvan Kumar feels that all the criticism that the bowler faced in recent times was "justified" and is also proud that his favourite ward has answered back in the best possible way by winning an overseas Test match for India.
"You can't deny that consistency has been a big problem for Ishant. Hopefully, this will be the series that will make him a better bowler. He got a flak for his inconsistency and it was justified. Or else, he wouldn't have been able to correct his flaws and come back stronger," Sharvan told PTI after Ishant's 7/74 helped in India's 95-run win.
Asked about the kind of problems that Ishant faced, Sharvan didn't mince words in blaming former India bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad for the problems that crept up in his bowling.
"Ishant is a quick bowler whom Prasad insisted on turning into a line and length bowler. He lost his natural affinity for speed at one point of time. One thing led to other and his action became flawed. The shoulder started dropping and the wrist position also suffered. This caused a drop in pace as well as confidence," Sharvan, who coached Ishant at the Patel Nagar's Ramjas College ground since he was teenager.
He did speak to Ishant before he embarked on the tour of England.
"I told him to look at his wrist position which should be very straight. He was also becoming a bit open-chested on his final delivery stride which needed to go back to the old-fashioned side on action in order to generate speed.
"These are little things I told him and I believe that Joe Dawes has done a lot of good work with Ishant after the low he hit with Prasad as the coach," Sharvan said.
