'Bowling with better rhythm'

Ishant takes heart from excellent efforts in Bangladesh Tests

“I am bowling with better rhythm now and it’s a good start to a New Year. It’s a good feeling to do well and hopefully I can carry the confidence to the upcoming series against SA,” Ishant told newsmen.

The turnaround in his fortunes came in the first Test in Chittagong when he got the chance to play after Harbhajan Singh sat out with a stiff neck. “I would like to thank the management for giving me chances in the ODIs against Sri Lanka. Even I didn’t feel I deserved the spot in those two games. I am very thankful to Veeru bhai because he had a lot to do with me playing in the first Test.”

The Delhi pacer expressed the hope that his bad times with the ball were behind him. “It was a challenge for me when things were not going in favour of me. I was desperate to perform then as I have never seen that kind of hard time in my life because I was going up for the last 2-3 years.

“You needed to be patient to get out of those times. I have realised that a cricketer has to go through such patches in his life and it has been great learning experience for me,” he added. On senior pacer Zaheer Khan’s help, Ishant said, “Zaheer has helped me a lot and he always talks to me whether I am bowling well or bad and his support helped me a lot.”

On the newly-appointed bowling consultant Eric Simons, he said, “It is going good with him. He has given tips about by wrist position and bowling action, now let’s see how it goes for me from this point.”