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Mohammed Shami has tamed the best of batters in ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2023. Despite missing out on four games, he is the leading wicket-taker of the tournament. Ahead of the final, he looks an indispensable part of the Indian team. Many wondered why the team management waited till Hardik Pandya got injured to include him in the playing XI and gave preference to Shardul Thakur. Indian skipper Rohit Sharma has finally opened up on why Shami was warming the benches for the first four games.
“It was tough for Shami to not play the initial part of the World Cup. But he was there for the team to help Siraj and Bumrah. That shows the quality of him being the team man he is. We had a chat with him about why he was missing out. But he kept working hard and that shows the kind of mental space he was in before the tournament. It says a lot about him. Once the opportunity opened up for him, he was right there. We can see with his performances,” Rohit said in the pre-match press conference.
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Shami remained wicketless only against the Netherlands in a dead rubber encounter at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. He proved why he deserved a place from the start with a fifer against New Zealand in Dharamsala to restrict them to a score below 300. In a low-scoring encounter, he made England batters look clueless in Lucknow with a four-fer. Against Sri Lanka, he was ferocious and picked up a fifer to bundle them out for 55. On a surface where Ravindra Jadeja took a fifer, Shami took two crucial wickets against South Africa.
But he saved his best for the semifinal clash against New Zealand. In a high-scoring encounter at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, he turned the game upside down. After picking wickets with the new ball, Shami got the prized wickets of Kane Williamson and Daryl Mitchell in his record-breaking seven-wicket haul.
Shami is a contender to win ‘Player of the series’ with 23 wickets from six games. Only Adam Zampa is close to him with 22 wickets from 10 games on the list of leading wicket-takers of the tournament.
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