Sharma is desperate to get his international career back on track

India pace bowler Ishant Sharma has announced that he has fully recovered from his ankle surgery and is ready to represent India once again.

Sharma stated that his time out of the squad was one of the worst moments of his career, but added that during that period, he became mentally stronger and hungrier for victory.

Sharma last represented India in the Test series against Australia at the beginning of this year, and was forced to skip the Indian Premier League (IPL) due to ankle surgery.

“I think I am mentally and physically much stronger now after having gone through the worst phase of my life, nobody asked me where I was (when out of the team). In a way, it’s good that it (injury) happened to me. But my family and friends have been very supportive,” Sharma said.

Sharma insisted that he had no regrets about missing the IPL or the short series against Sri Lanka in July since it gave him more time to recover and work on his game at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.

“I gave it a lot of thought [undergoing the ankle surgery] before going ahead with it. Missing the IPL was my decision and I don’t have any complaints, the fact that I had time for myself helped. As part of my rehabilitation, I was in the NCA (National Cricket Academy) for three months, training from 10AM to 5PM. I worked on my body and gained strength. There were several long and tough sessions but I guess hard work pays off,” Sharma added.

During his time off, Sharma revealed that he had been working on developing his outswingers.

“I still continue to bowl with the same kind of intensity. Bowling a lot in the nets has helped. I have also learnt to bowl the outswinger, it was Joe Dawes (India bowling coach) who taught me the outswinger during the New Zealand series recently. Eric Simmons (Dawes’ predecessor) was also very helpful,” Sharma said.

India’s next series will be at home against England, and Sharma is hoping that his good form in the domestic matches he has played will earn him a place back on the Test roster, but he will be in fierce competition with veteran pace bowler Zaheer Khan and young talent Umesh Yadav.