Will the Real Ishant Sharma Please Stand Up for India in Test Cricket

Steve Smith scored his fifth hundred of 2014 in the third Test against India. In the same match in Melbourne, Ishant Sharma also reached three figures, albeit in a different way.

Yet while Australia’s in-form captain was raising his bat to the MCG faithful to acknowledge his century on day two, Sharma was not so keen to celebrate when he conceded the 100th run off his bowling.

To add to the frustration, he finished up without a wicket to his name. For Sharma, it was a low in a year that has been full of peaks and troughs.

The 26-year-old has taken 36 wickets in eight Test appearances in 2014, all of them away from home, at an average below his career mark (31.75 to 36.88).

He took six wickets in an innings twice on the tour of New Zealand at the start of the year, while also claiming a career-best 7-74 against England as India recorded a famous win at Lord’s.

Yet his failure to make a breakthrough in the Boxing Day Test against Australia was the fourth time in the calendar year he had drawn a blank in an innings.

Back in February, he could not help his team triumph at the Basin Reserve, following up first-innings figures of 6-51 with 0-164 as a triple hundred from Brendon McCullum saved the day for New Zealand.

This is not a personal attack on Sharma, a player who made his Test debut as a teenager back in 2007 and has now sent down more than 12,000 deliveries in his career.

Do not forget that he has had to toil on some unforgiving pitches in India, surfaces that suit spinners, not seamers. India has been a graveyard for visiting pace bowlers in the past, so we should always spare a thought for those who call it home.

He has provided plenty of examples of his obvious talent, none better than when, as a raw bowler in just his fourth Test, he had the great Ricky Ponting in trouble during India's tour of Australia in 2008. 

ESPN Cricinfo editor Sambit Bal described as "a day when Ishant Sharma shook up Ricky Ponting and set up a famous win." It was a passage of play that offered great hope for the future.

Move forward to 2014 and Sharma played a pivotal role in sealing India's only Test victory (so far) over the last 12 months.

His seven-wicket haul at the home of cricket saw him bounce out England, Alastair Cook’s group of happy hookers all falling into the leg-side trap on the final day to be beaten by 95 runs.

Sadly injury denied him the chance to carry the momentum forward into the next Test at Southampton. England would win that game comfortably at the Ageas Bowl on their way to an emphatic series victory, one that had seemed so unlikely when they left Lord’s with their tails between their legs.

Back before he became known as one of the world’s premier bowlers, England’s James Anderson developed the rather unwanted nickname of "Daisy" (some days he does, some days he doesn’t), something Lawrence Booth wrote about back in 2009 in his blog for The Cricketer.

Eventually the Lancastrian, badly done to at times by management in his early days, worked out a method for success. He now sits in sixth position in the ICC Test bowling rankings and is the undoubted leader of England’s attack.

Anderson has gone from bit-part player, someone who featured in just one Test in 2005, to finding himself on the brink of becoming his nation's leading wicket-taker in the longest form of the game.

Sharma needs to find that same level of consistency if he is to blossom further and not be India's "Daisy" forever.

At his age and with his experience, the 6'3" bowler needs to stand tall and become the main man.