Ishant Sharma, the spearhead of the Indian pace bowling in Test cricket, has expressed his happiness on winning the Arjuna Award. The seamer is a part of the 27 athletes who will be getting the prestigious Arjuna award this year. He has played 97 Tests for India. The Arjuna awards 2020 was announced last week, it also included the name of Indian women’s team all-rounder, Deepti Sharma.

Ishant, Deepti, and Rohit Sharma’s names were nominated by BCCI for the National awards in May. Rohit became the fourth cricketer to win the ‘Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award’ after Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, and Virat Kohli. In a video shared by BCCI on their Twitter handle, the lanky pacer said that his wife deserves this award as much as him for believing in his potential.

“I think more than me, my wife is really proud because she is the one that really thinks that I should get the award, so I think she deserves this award,” said Ishant Sharma in an interview shared by the BCCI.

The Delhi lad shared his thoughts on his 13-year long journey in international cricket and said that he has put in a lot of hard work to reach here, “When I got to know that I was getting the Arjuna Award, I was really happy, even proud of myself. You know for the last 13 years I put in a lot of hard work so it’s a proud moment for me and for my family,” the fast bowler added.

We always think about how to win the game: Ishant Sharma

Since the departure of Zaheer Khan, Ishant has been the most experienced bowler of the potent Test bowling line-up. The 31-year-old has been a mainstay of the Test team from the last 13 years. On the success of the Indian pace battery in the last few years, the veteran cricketer feels that all of them play for the victory of the team and that is the sole mantra of their accomplishments.

“The mindset of Team India’s bowling is that we always think about how to win a game. That is the most important priority for us. We try to read the situation and act accordingly. We plan according to every batsman and try to execute that on the field,” said Sharma.

'A proud moment for me and my family,' @ImIshant on winning the Arjuna Award for 2020.#TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/VbVdWN0qWE

— BCCI (@BCCI) August 24, 2020