2🧶 When I think of him, I don’t first see 311 wickets or 100 Tests. I see moments. Perth 2008. Birmingham 2013. Lord’s 2014. And those years between 2018 and 2020, his true peak.

3🧶 He arrived in 2007, just 18, tall, awkward, hair flying everywhere.Nobody knew what he’d become. A year later, in Perth, he bowled the spell that still defines him.

4🧶 Ricky Ponting was at the crease. At that time, the best in the world. And here was Ishant, only 19, pounding in over after over. Ponting looked unsettled.

5🧶 He had already bowled a long spell. Kumble thought of a change. Sehwag urged Jumbo: “Ponting strike par hai, Usko ek aur over do”

6🧶 Ishant agreed. First ball of that extra over, Ponting edged to slip.Gone. Not just a wicket - a statement. India could produce a fast bowler to trouble the best.

7🧶 But the years after Perth were not easy.The promise didn’t turn into dominance. The numbers told a tougher story.

8🧶 Between 2010 and 2013, he played 34 Tests, took 95 wickets at an average of 41.31. For a frontline quick, that was harsh.

9🧶 He was ridiculed, called unlucky, even a passenger. But he kept turning up. Bowling the hard overs, the thankless overs. Not glamour, just graft.

10🧶 Then came Birmingham, 2013. Champions Trophy Final. India had 129.England were 110/3, Morgan and Bopara in. The game felt gone.

11🧶 Dhoni gave Ishant the 18th over.He’d gone for runs already. It felt like a gamble, but it was MS rolling the dice & the beauty of cricket is it gives you second chances.

12🧶 In that over, Morgan gone. Next ball, Bopara gone. Everything turned. India lifted the trophy. Ishant, for once, was the hero. https://x.com/repivxx65_/statu...

13🧶 Lord’s, 2011 had given a glimpse. A fiery morning spell of 4/69, England reduced to 62/5.India lost, but Ishant had shown what he could be.

14🧶 Three years later, Lord’s again. England chasing 319. He castled Bell, then found Cook’s edge.After lunch, Dhoni pushed him into a short-ball plan. https://x.com/HitmanCricket/st...

15🧶 Moeen, Prior, Stokes, Root, Broad.All fell. Ishant finished with 7/74.India won at Lord’s after 28 years. It was his day, the kind you don’t forget. https://x.com/kartik_vlsi/stat...

16🧶 But one day doesn’t make a career. Perth had been promise. Birmingham was redemption. Lord’s was dominance. And then came the long years in between, not highlight reels, but heavy overs, dull days, holding ends. The kind of work nobody notices, yet teams are built on.

17🧶 That’s where Ishant changed. From a wayward teenager into the senior man. The bowler trusted to set the tone in England, to bowl dry spells in Australia, to guide Bumrah, Shami, Siraj through SENA tours.

18🧶 And then, almost unexpectedly, came reward. Between 2018 and 2020, he hit his purple patch. 71 Test wickets at just 19.14, not just a survivor now, but India’s most reliable seamer.

19🧶 When India won abroad, Ishant was always in the frame. He took 82 wickets in overseas victories — second only to Zaheer Khan among Indians. 34 of those came in SENA wins, proof of his hand in India’s rise as a travelling side.

20🧶 And by Lord’s 2021, he crossed another landmark — becoming only the 4th Indian to 200 away Test wickets, after Kumble, Kapil and Zaheer. Not glamorous, not loud. Just relentless, season after season.

21🧶 In that same stretch came Kolkata, 2019. India’s first pink-ball Test. Ishant tore through Bangladesh with 5/22 — his best at home.

22🧶 And in Antigua, 2018, he even made a fifty. The workhorse who bowled forever, finally raising his bat. A career full of unlikely surprises.

23🧶 100 Tests. 311 wickets. Numbers nobody imagined when that teenager first ran in. Longevity became his greatest achievement.

24🧶 He played his 100th Test alongside Rohit, Kohli, Ashwin, Pujara. Most of them started much later, yet became the faces of Indian cricket. Ishant stayed in the shadows and still finished as India’s 6th-highest Test wicket-taker.

25🧶 His last Test came in Kanpur, November 2021. There’s been no retirement call yet, just silence. Maybe that’s fitting — Ishant’s career was never about the noise. It was about turning up, over and over.

@Dravidict This one stays all time best 😭

@itsPopGlory Just doesn't fit in the birthday post 😆

@Dravidict That Perth spell to Ponting 👌🏻

@kaustubh_4579 That spell, that spell..

@Dravidict An under achiever who should have got over 400 wickets

@1710rajesh With the patch he hit in the last phase of his career looked good for it

@Dravidict What a wonderful thread 🧵! Too good…!

@rickysharma_08 Thank you so much for reading ❤️

@Dravidict He blossomed under Ravi Shastri and Bharat Arun. He was dropped when he was still doing well.

@raphael_zeon Dravid Rohit leadership just pulled the plug on him.

@Dravidict With greatest of respect and admiration for Jasprit , but Ishant Sir was a beast…nothing gives me the chills and fear of the spell he bowled at Perth. 🙏🏻