A good delivery is a good delivery regardless of the form of cricket it is bowled in,”Ishant Sharma said here today when asked if Twenty20, with its slam bang ways, would leave bowlers short on confidence. He said he believed that, batsmen’s domination of Twenty20 notwithstanding, “it really does not affect the actual role of bowlers.”

According to him, it is for a bowler to make the necessary adjustments when moving into Test cricket from Twenty20 for “quality” alone will ensure he can bowl well in all versions of the game. “It depends on the kind of player you are. It's true that T20 has become batsman oriented but a bowler in it has to do his own job - as usual. You have your own aims to achieve,” said the tall, lanky northern Indian boy who had come to be widely described as the world’s finest fast bowler during the Indian team’s latest tour of Australia. Sharma, met by the city’s Press at a promotional event organised in a central Kolkata luxury hotel, said he was confident that everyone, especially children, would be able to grasp cricket's nittygritty from computer games, a brand of which was being endorsed by him.
“I hope it will help the kids and guide them properly. Here, they can learn how to deliver a yorker the way I do out there in the middle,” he said with a chuckle, leaving no one in any doubt about his coming agreeably to terms with the requirements of times when cricket is grist to the subcontinent's money making mill. Shoaib Akhtar, who will be playing for the Kolkata Knight Riders, of course, inspired questions Sharma found himself answering.
“I’ll get a chance to share his experience (as a teammate) . He will definitely make our side powerful,” he said. Asked why even the synergy achieved by blending Mr John Buchanan’s coaching acumen with Sourav Ganguly’s purportedly astute captaincy had failed to stop the Kolkata Knight Riders from sliding in the Indian Premier League, Sharma said he had no explanation, not forgetting add the very predictable shibboleths about everyone in the game having to cope with one's lean phases.