It was less than a year ago when an upbeat Ishant Sharma landed in Nagpur—with India on the brink of a historic Test series win against Australia-having emerged as one of the most intimidating fast bowlers in the world. Still within his second season, the tall, lanky paceman had formed a potent new-ball combination in tandem with Zaheer Khan and had proved to be the scourge for a number of opposing batsmen-not the least for Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting. But after suffering an unfortunate reversal in fortunes over the last few months, it was a subdued Ishant-plagued with a number of doubts and low on confidence — that arrived in the city for the NKP Salve Challenger Series on Tuesday evening.

The performance of the fast bowlers emerged as a sore thumb during India’s inglorious exit from the Champions Trophy. And Ishant, who picked up three wickets with an economy rate of 5.93 in the first two games, ended up losing his place for the final tie against the West Indies. With the Indian selectors now mulling over their fast bowling resources for the upcoming ODI series against Australia, it will be the 21-year-old Delhi paceman’s performance that is set to take centre-stage, as the Challenger Series kicks off at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) stadium on Thursday.

While Team India was away contending with their fast bowling woes in South Africa; the out-of-favour duo of Sreesanth and Munaf Patel reignited their chances of a comeback with menacing spells during the Irani Trophy. And it is this pair that could pose a challenge to Ishant retaining his place in the Indian team for the Australia series. The likes of Sudeep Tyagi, L Balaji, Dhawal Kulkarni and Pankaj Singh meanwhile will be the other fast bowlers looking to catch the selectors’ eye during the Challenger Series.

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