'The atmosphere of the dressing room is to play fearless and that rubbed off on Ishant too'
'But fearless does not necessarily mean that you become ill-mannered. What happened was in bad taste'
If Ishant Sharma crossed the line in the just-concluded Test series against Sri Lanka it was mainly because of captain Virat Kohli’s "aggressiveness".
That's the view of the lanky pacer’s childhood coach, Shravan Kumar.
"He bowled very well but got too aggressive. That is something he could have avoided.
"Aggression is fine as long as you are not making a physical contact or abusing. There should not be any body contact. If you do that then you are penalised. That is what happened with Ishant," the Delhi-based coach said, reacting to the one-Test ban Ishant was slapped with for his boorish behaviour in Sri Lanka.
Kumar said his ward was unusually aggressive and captain Kohli played a role in it.
"It (Ishant becoming overtly aggressive) is because of Kohli's aggressiveness. He (Kohli) believes in playing fearless cricket and doesn't hold back. The atmosphere of the dressing room is to play fearless and that rubbed off on Ishant too.
“But fearless does not necessarily mean that you become ill-mannered. What happened was in bad taste."
'Will give Ishant a piece of mind when I meet him'
He was of the view that Ishant did not need to cross the line since his bowling was doing the talking anyway.
"Ishant is back home but I have not spoken to him yet. I will give him my piece of mind when I meet him. Aggression is acceptable if you are getting the batsman out, else there is no point of being belligerent.
"Sledging is to distract the player but there should not be any physical contact. It (sledging) has been there for many years but there is a way to do it. Now that he has got a one-match ban, it is not good for him as well as the team," said Kumar.
Indeed, Ishant let the ball do the talking, especially in the third and decisive Test in which he claimed eight wickets as India scored a famous series victory. The speedster finished the series with 13 wickets.
"He bowled well but he can do even better. I will advice him to bowl more full length balls when I meet him next. Also, playing all formats is too taxing on the body. I want to see him playing Tests and he can pack in an IPL season at most."
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