Spicy Shami

The coach of Indian pace bowler - Mohammed Shami said that you can earn money but you also have to invest to upgrade your skills and for which, in his farmhouse at Alinagar UP, Shami has developed various pitches to polish his skills so that he could maintain his control over his bowling and stick to the basics - even when he is away from the game, the break does not hamper his return.

In the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup India – the Men in Blue are playing cricket at a different level. They are still unbeaten in the tournament and their commendable performances have created an aura of invincibility that has become a matter of fear for the opposing teams – England experienced it last night after digesting yet another heavy defeat in a low-scoring affair. Like Bangladesh, England crumbled on a tricky Lucknow deck and with that, their further progression in this tournament is over.

It was Mohammed Shami who ripped through the heart of the English batting line-up in a mesmerizing spell of high-quality bowling.

Shami claimed 2 for 4 from three overs inside the first powerplay in a breathtaking spell and Jasprit Bumrah 2 for 17 from five as England collapsed to 40 for 4 after 10 overs. Shami claimed two more and Bumrah one and it was all over over time.

For the first four matches, Shami was just a spectator and working as a mentor for his team passing out valuable advice with a smile on his face. If he was chomping at the bit or feeling frustrated at having to warm the bench, Shami did a great job of hiding it – with Hardik Pandya being in such a fine tune, the need for the third seamer was hardly felt because Pandya was not only providing the value with the ball but with the bat also.

Then Pandya was injured and India decided not to include a third spinner but give Shami a chance which the man grabbed with full hands.

Pandya's temporary exit took Shardul Thakur out of the equation, Suryakumar Yadav slotting in at No. 6 and Shami coming in for Thakur to lend greater teeth and potency to the bowling group.

In two matches, against New Zealand in Dharamsala and England in Lucknow, he has snaffled nine wickets – average 8.44, economy 4.47, and strike-rate 11.33. Among the top 15 wicket-takers, no one has a better average or strike rate and only Jasprit Bumrah, his partner-in-crime, has a better economy (3.91).

Shami could only achieve this due to his self-confidence and hard work. When he was not playing, Shami never allowed the grass to grow under his feet, but always kept himself engaged so that the pace bowler within him did not get lost by any means.

At Lucknow, he had not done something extraordinary to set jitters in the English batting line-up – rather maintained the spartan line and length consistently on a brownish deck where people thought that Ravichandran Ashwin could have been deadly. Well, India bowling under the lights for the time in the tournament showed that its pace bowlers are one of the best on any surface – the experienced Shami provided the cutting edge as Mohamed Siraj still rediscovering his mojo and Shardul Thakur provided nothing.

The spell to Ben Stokes was a treat.

The first delivery landed on a length and did not move but shaped away. The second ball was another goodish length which Stokes mistimed.  The third ball was another good-length delivery which was punched to extra-cover. The fourth delivery was a peach – it seamed away after landing on the same length from an angle. The fifth one was a full-length which Stokes played at mid-on. Stokes was getting restless because he was in an attacking intent so that he could break the shackles – but he cleared his front foot against a delivery that was too full to achieve that and had to depart.

Shami exhibited a superb display of length and seam bowling.

The seam that leaves the hand of Shami is as good as anyone in modern-day cricket and the amount of control he achieves over his bowling is just brilliant.

Hard work pays off, certainly!

Thank You

Faisal Caesar