I admire Dale Steyn’s tattoos: Ishant Sharma

Back from a successful trip to Australia, where the Indiancricket team

beatthehosts2-1 in arare Testseries victoryon foreignsoil, wherehealso cappedoffasuccessful year, cricketer IshantSharmawas unwinding inDevilz Tattooz studiointheCapital. The Delhi fastbowlerwaslooking forwardtofinally play for his homefranchise in IPL 2019, among other things. Jet-lagged and sippingonsomemuchneededcaffeine, he got down for aquicktête-à-tête alongside getting his latest ink done. Excerpts:

What’s this tattoo about? What other tattoos have yougot? Ineed to first getmyShiva tattoocompleted. Nextup will be theMahamrityunjaya mantra onmyarm. I’ve been inspired alot byShiva.Among the tattoos Igot done earlier wasmytest capnumber (258). Igetmytattoosdone fromthe sameartist as onlyaparticular artistcanknowsomeone’s personal style.

TheIndian team hasquiteafew tattoo freaks. Whodoyou think hasthe best tattoos in the dressing room? Well, there are quite afew.KL Rahul, Virat andShikharhave the best ink.KLhasthemost—

he is almost obsessed with them.Hegot afewmoredone recently in Australia.Among international cricketers, I admire DaleSteyn’s tattoos.

Rishabh Pant and TimPaine engaged in alot of on-field banter in the India-Australia Test series. Even Viratisknown to be an aggressivecharacter on the field. What areyourviews about on-field aggression? Howwould thegameremain fun withouton-field aggression?Alittle banter here and thereshouldbethere, no problem,but nobodycrossed the line. Nobody got fined, so until weensurethat, it’s good for thegame.

And howare things with Jaddu, who yougot into an argument with in one of thematches? Well, thismuch is normal. I’m sureyouhave siblings at home whoyou get into fights with. It was justaheat ofthemoment situation,and afterwewon,we celebrated together.

You’reone of thoseinthe Indian teamwho got married recently. Howismarried life treating you? People say aftermarriageI havebecomeresponsibleasa personandevenonthe field. I hadagoodcounty season.My wife[basketballplayer Pratima Singh] is asportsperson,too, which is aplus.