Mohammed Shami in action© AFP
Pacer Mohammed Shami played a pivotal in Team India’s brilliant outing at the ODI World Cup 2023. India remained unbeaten in the entire tournament but ended up losing against Australia in the final match. Shami, who played only seven games, scalped a whopping total of 24 wickets and became the highest wicket-taker of the tournament. However, Shami sustained an ankle injury during the World Cup and has been out of action, since then. Recently, the 33-year-old pacer returned to nets and started with his bowling practice.
Despite battling through the injury and missing the IPL 2024 and T20 World Cup 2024, Shami looked in a good shape. Recently, Shami appeared on a podcast where he revealed that star batter Virat Kohli and pacer Ishant Sharma are two of his best friends from the Indian team.
“Virat Kohli and Ishant Sharma are my best friends. They constantly kept calling me when I was injured,” Shami said on Shubhankar Mishra‘s podcast.
Shami also lashed out at former Pakistan captain Inzamam ul Haq for accusing pacer Arshdeep Singh of ball tampering during the T20 World Cup.
Shami himself was the target of a strange charge during the 2023 World Cup. Former Pakistan player Hasan Raza said that India were getting different type of balls, with a device implanted in it, and that was the reason Shami was getting extra swing.
“I have said in an interview that I will cut the ball and show if there is a device or not. Abhi ek aur namuna khod ke dia hai inhone. They said, ‘How can Arshdeep Singh get reverse swing?’ I want to say only one thing to Inzamam bhai. I respect him a lot. If you do the same thing, isn’t it ball-tampering? Those who do well against them, will be their target. India and Pakistan are arch-rivals,” Shami said.
“I don’t expect that despite being ex-players you can say such thing. Even Wasim Akram said how umpires give you the ball and it is not possible to plant any device in it. This type of cartoongiri is not good. These statements are there to fool people.”
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