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Any team would aspire to have a Mohammed Shami like bowler on its side given the kind of potent talent he has. A bowler who poses threat and have a prowess to destroy any batting line-up in the world. But this doesn't come overnight. Even the best has to go through the due rigour and drill, which is the case with Shami.
Cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar recounted an interesting story about how former India head coach Ravi Shastri played a better part in Shami's progression.
“At the Wanderers, the last time around in 2018, was when they actually got stuck into him apparently because till then he hadn’t really delivered. They said to him that on this pitch if you’re not going to take wickets then… So the word is and I am not too sure that Ravi Shasti gave him a rocket. And then he came out and destroyed South Africa. Sometimes you know, you need to put an arm around a player, sometimes you’ve got to just get stuck into him,” Gavaskar said on air.
Jasprit Bumrah, who finished with 5/42 on Day 2 of the Cape Town Test between India and South Africa, may have hogged the limelight in bowling but what Shami did in his superb 16 over spell of 2/39 was equally impressive. With Temba Bavuma and Keegan Petersen forging a threatening-looking partnership for India, Shami broke the partnership and struck twice in an over to tile the balance of the game in India’s favour.
Shami’s turnaround in the last few years has been nothing remarkable but as it turns out, it was during India’s tour of South Africa that really triggered the India pacer’s revival.
Gavaskar also pointed out how Shami's fellow pacers Umesh Yadav and Bumrah get among the wickets could have motivated the 31-year-old to go all guns blazing and get two important scalps of South Afica.
“Somebody of his calibre, you can’t keep him out of the game for a long time. He had seen Yadav take a couple of wickets, he had seen Bumrah bowl splendidly and take 2 wickets. So he wanted to contribute. And he came in and did it at the right time. That Bavuma and Petersen partnership was a delight to watch but at the same time it was threatening India, so they needed a wicket at that stage and Shami delivered it,” he added.
