Ishant Sharma is arguably one of the most lethal pacers India ever had. Making his international debut in 2007, the 34-year-old pacer has scalped 434 wickets for Team India. Ishant also had a great outing with the ball for Delhi Capitals in IPL 2023, where he took 10 wickets in 8 matches. As Team India has been waiting for the return of their ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who has been out of action since September 2022, due to injury, Ishant named three young bowlers who can lead India's pace attack in future.
In a recent interaction on Beer Biceps podcast, Ishant named Umran Malik and Arshdeep Singh as strong contender's of India's bowling attack.
"If you work properly with him, Umran Malik has the potential to do well for the country for a long period of time. (The other would be) Arshdeep Singh," Ishant said on Beer Biceps podcast.
He went on to name his Delhi Capitals' teammate Mukesh Kumar as the third bowler and stated that if the Bengal pacer gets correct guidance then he can be really successful.
"Not many people know his (Mukesh Kumar) story, but I haven't seen a man as simple as him. If you ask him to bowl a particular delivery, he will bowl only that! He needs the right guidance on the field so that when the pressure situation comes, he knows what delivery to bowl. He went for runs in IPL because he bowled the tough overs. No one sees the situation in which he bowled, or which batsman he bowled to. Everyone sees that he conceded 50 runs in 4 overs," he said.
"When Russell is playing and they've lost 8 wickets, what does he have to lose? If you even fail to execute one yorker, he will hit you for a six. No one notices these things. If he's guided properly, he can become a very good fast bowler," he added.
Mukesh made his IPL debut in 2023 with Delhi Capitals and turned out to be really expensive. He played 10 matches and leaked 326 runs and could scalp only 7 matches.
Notably, Mukesh has been named in India's Test and ODI squad which will be squaring off against West Indies from July 12. Pacer Umran Malik has also found himself a place in the ODI series.
India and West Indies will also play five T20Is after the conclusion of the Test and ODI series, respectively.
India's Test squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), KS Bharat (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Navdeep Saini.
India's ODI squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Surya Kumar Yadav, Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Shardul Thakur, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik, Mukesh Kumar.