Melbourne: Australia's cricket coach Tim Nielson feels struggling Indian pacer Ishant Sharma was bound to go through the lean phase he is currently enduring as he has been forced to lead the bowling attack too early in his career.

"Sharma's an example of young players when they do start well there's expectation on them the whole way through, they find it difficult, they become targeted by opposition teams," Nielson was quoted as saying by 'The Sydney Morning Herald'.

"Rather than being the second or third fast bowler in the group, you all of a sudden become the one everyone's very aware of. They haven't had Zaheer Khan playing for them for the last little while through injury, so he's had to take on a leadership mantle. All those things add up to mean more responsibility and more pressure," he said.

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