Arjuna Award is the result of my hard work in last 13 years, feels Ishant Sharma

The Sports Ministry announced Ishant Sharma and Deepti Sharma among 27 athletes to be conferred with the Arjuna Award this year, while naming Rohit Sharma among the five sportsmen for India’s highest sporting honour Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award. It was a glorious moment for Ishant Sharma, a bowler way too erratic in the initial years but developed leaps and bound to emerge as one of the finest pacers among the current lot. The award surely had an etching effect on his confidence as he admitted that his hard work over the years culminated with the sporting honour.

"When I got to know that I was getting an Arjuna award, I was really happy and proud about myself. For the last 13 years I did a lot of hard work, so it's a proud moment for me and my family," Ishant said in a short video message posted by BCCI on its twitter handle.

"More than me, my wife is proud of me because she is the one who thinks that I should get the award," the pacer added.

Since the South Africa tour of 2018, Indian pacers have been the most talked-about entity and sans the New Zealand tour of 2020, they have hardly failed elsewhere. Many have attributed the same to a change in mindset and Ishant is of the opinion that the motto of winning matches for India, more than any individual performances, has been the key to their progress.

"The mindset of Team India's bowling right now is that we always think about how to win a game, that's the most important priority for us. We don't think about individuals, we try and be in the situation and do accordingly. We plan according to every batsman. We try and execute those things on the ground and things happen for us," he said.