Mohammad Shami is known to attack the batters with fiery bouncers. However, the speedster doesn’t seem to have much problem with facing them too. Shami who has two half-centuries in England to his credit said that he is not scared of facing short balls while batting. Speaking to India.com on his utility as a lower-order batter, the 31-year-old said that he has always loved batting and contributing to the team’s total.
While teams often treat lower batters with bouncers, Shami is not bothered about short balls coming his way. “If I was scared of the short ball, I wouldn’t have scored that half-century at Lord’s. So I don’t think much about it,” Shami was quoted as saying.
Shami, while batting in the 3rd innings of the 2nd Test of England’s tour last year, had registered an unbeaten half-century at the Lord’s. Taking the team score forward from 194/7, Shami stitched a crucial unbeaten 89 run partnership with Jasprit Bumrah. India declared their second innings on 298/8, setting England a 272-run target. England eventually got bowled out for 120 in the last innings and the visitors registered a comprehensive victory.
The 31-year-old had previously scored his maiden half-century against England during the 2014 tour.
Shami in the interview also talked about Ravi Shastri’s influence over the team and said that the former coach always brought positivity to the table. He added that Shastri’s positivity was always rubbed on to the team and that reflected in the performance on the ground.
With Shastri at the helm of affairs, India registered consecutive Test series victories in Australia in 2018-19, 2020-21 and also beat England 2-1 in Tests on their soil. The Indian team qualified for the World Test Championship final and was at top of the Test ranking for a long time.
Meanwhile, Shami is gearing up for the upcoming home white-ball series against West Indies. The multi-format contest will start with 3 ODIs in Ahmedabad from February 6. The two teams will then be facing each other in a 3-match T20 series.
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