Former India spinner, Piyush Chawla has hailed Mohammed Shami’s impactful comeback after being rested in India’s commanding win over Bangladesh in their Championship Trophy opener adding that the veteran pacer metamorphoses into a different bowler whenever he represents the country in the ICC tournament.
In this his first-ever Champions Trophy match, Shami gave a quality performance on Thursday with figures of 5-53 leading India to a six-wicket victory over Bangladesh in Dubai.
Shami with five in Dubai became the all-time highest Indian wicket-taker in ICC ODI history with a total of 60 wickets surpassing Zaheer Khan with 59 wickets. He also completed a personal milestone by becoming the fastest Indian to take 200 wickets in ODIs. He now stands at 202 in the format.
“ICC tournaments and Mohammed Shami, such a love story. Whenever he’s in the ICC tournament, he becomes a different bowler altogether. He is coming back from injury; although he looked a bit rusty in the recently finished bilateral series, it was a positive that he was getting his overs in. Today, he looked much better.
34-year-old Shami is also the second-fastest man to get to 200 men’s ODI wickets-a tie with former Pakistan spinner and currently head coach Saqlain Mushtaq, having taken 104 matches for the achievement. The fastest is Australia’s left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc, having done it in 102 matches.
He also becomes the quickest-ever bowler to complete 200 men’s ODI wickets when measured in terms of balls bowled-5126 balls ahead of Starc’s 5240 balls.
“Shami has yet to recover fully, but a five-wicket haul is a big boost for him. It’s important to see the conditions, and Shami knows exactly where to pitch the ball with his high seam position.
“Shami was consistently hitting that six-to-eight-meter range, which allowed him some seam movement off the pitch. That is why he got wickets early on with the new ball. It was also great to see him applying variations, including a slower ball well disguised,” Chawla said on JioHotstar.
Right-arm pacer coming from a long injury lay-off of more than 14 months, with an Achilles tendon surgery due to a heel injury, had injured his ankle while playing in the ODI World Cup 2023, thus keeping him away for more than a year.
The 34-year-old pacer made a successful return to international cricket with four white-ball appearances for India against England over the last month after a lengthy layoff from ankle surgery.
