India’s fast bowling has touched new heights since Australia’s tour in 2018-19, a tour which saw India winning their first ever series in Australia all because of their pace bowling arsenal they have developed since then, It is the golden era of India’s fast bowling which have helped them achieve greater milestones, today we look at the career of one of the important member of India’s pace battery
Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit
Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, four world class pace bowlers bowling together in
tandem and making batsmen dance on their tunes. Never had the Indian cricket
followers would have dreamt of such a scenario. India has the reputation of
world class spinners till the arrival of a certain Kapil Dev who inspired a
generation of Indians to break their back on docile Indian pitches.
In 90s’ India had Javagal Srinath and
Venkatesh Prasad and in first decade of this century they produced Zaheer Khan,
Ishant Sharma, Irfhan Pathan, Sreeshanth and Munaf Patel to name a few but
India’s pace bowling was far from threatening though they helped India to win
on occasions, Johannesburg 2006, Trent Bridge 2007, Perth 2008, Hamilton 2009
and Durban 2010 to name a few. In spite of them India’s spinners were the one
who were primed to win matches even outside India as well.
Things started to change after
Australia’s tour in 2014-15, India lost the Test series by 2-0 and was lucky
not to lose the other two. Mahendra Singh Dhoni retired from Test Cricket and
Virat Kohli became India’s new Test Captain in June 2015. It was here that
things started to change for good. Kohli, a passionate Test Cricket Captain
aimed to win and hence adopted the five bowler strategy which helped India to
play with more pacers at home and outside.
For the first time India’s aim from
building batting bench strength shifted to bowling group. Mohammed Shami’s
arrival also helped Kohli’s cause, he gave Ishant , who was improved bowler a
longer rope, Umesh Yadav also took his game to next level but it was arrival of
Jasprit Bumrah in 2018 and Mohammed Siraj in 2020 that India was able to form a
pace attack that could envy the best in the business.
Mohammed Shami bursted on International
cricket in 2013 and immediately was hailed as a long term prospect. Over the
years he has become India’s most consistent bowler. However it was tour to
South Africa in January 2018 that saw Shami 2.0 as a bowler, till then he had
picked up 95 wickets in 27 Tests at an average of 30.77 a decent record but not
an exceptional one. Against South Africa he picked 15 wickets and helped India
win a face salving victory at Johannesburg to avoid a whitewash. Since then he
has been a changed bowler, his wrist position has been excellent and he has
been pitching most of the deliveries up at the batsman. Since Jan 2018 till Dec
2021, Shami has played 28 Tests and have picked 108 wickets at 23.69, a figure
which shows how much he has evolved as a bowler.
 |
| Shami has been an excellent performer in ODI Cricket as well |
At Centurion, Shami reached another milestone;
he became 11th Indian bowler and fifth pacer to reach to 200 Wickets
in Test Cricket. The best thing is he has the best average among the five
pacers in this club. Off late he has been bowling excellently and has formed a
formidable attack with Bumrah, Ishant and Siraj. At a time when India’s batting
stock has been showing downward trends, the bowling has large pool which shows
that India’s age old problem of taking 20 wickets has been resolved.
Shami has also been an excellent
performer in fifty over format where he has picked 148 wickets in 79 matches at
an average of 25.62. Over last two years he has been preferred in the red ball
cricket which is one of the reasons of his impressive returns in longer format as
he has been getting regular breaks in white ball format.
The kind of wickets and the life of
fast bowler are not easy in subcontinent compounding with personal problems,
life has not been easy for Shami, he however has never learnt to give it up. This
is the reason he has been India’s premier bowler for last 8 years as he has
always performed when he was termed as finished product.
Shami on the other hand is enjoying his moment in the sun for it has been a dream year for him and India’s Test team.
Mohammed Shami’s Career
|
Format
|
Matches |
Balls |
Runs
Given |
Wickets |
Average |
Strike
Rate |
|
Tests |
55 |
9999 |
5483 |
203 |
27.00 |
49.27 |
|
ODI |
79 |
4044 |
3793 |
148 |
25.62 |
27.3 |
|
T20I |
17 |
357 |
568 |
18 |
31.55 |
19.8 |
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