Mohammad SHAMI, Is he the answer to India’s quest for slog overs ?

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In the absense of Mohammad Shami except Jaspreet Bumrah all struggled to restrict the runs and came out as super expensive especially in T20s. India’s last practice match against Australia before the T20 World Cup 2022 is an eye opener for a huge fraction of cricket lovers and viewers. Post Virat Kohli‘s form, the biggest struggle for Indian squad is to get a fine and effective SLOG OVERs bowler, who not only could save the runs but also finish the tail and wrap the innings with lowest target on the board. India tried many of his pacers such as Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh etc. It was Asia Cup when officials starts taking it as as matter of concern though many believe it was slightly late.

Mohammad Shami in IPL 2022

As the big tournament’s dates was coming closer. The ray of hope is seen in the Mohammad Shami. Although he played his last T20 in Nov 2021 and since then he was out of team. Mohammad Shami even led his IPL Franchise (Gujarat Lions) won the title for 2022 by taking 20 wickets in 16 IPL games at the average of 24.40. To add further he was the top wicket taker in Powerplay with 11 wickets at the economy rate of 6.62. With all these fine performances he was still struggling to get a place in Indian squad. To add the struggle, he diagnosed as covid positive when he got in for the T20 series against Australia. Subsequently he was dropped from the T20 series against South Africa as well.

Mohammad Siraj

Another less talked but effective on pitch especially in early overs bowler is Mohammad Siraj. He did his debut in Jan 2019 against and in Australia and since then he has been one of the finest white ball bowler. From last one he is performed exceptional well in ODI and T20 with an economical average and strike rate. He is known for his in-swing especially for Right Handers and Surprise Bouncers. Seeing his determination and contribution to game he is anticipated as one of the key bowler of the squad.

Arshdeep Singh advent

With the advent of left hand seamer Arshdeep Singh, chances of Mohammad Shami getting selected was grim. But due to an unfortunate injury of Jaspreet Bumrah, he is picket into the final 15 for T20 World Cup. he has proved his worth in the practice match against one of the toughest opponent of championship (Australia). He got the last over as his first over in the match. he had to defend 10 runs and with 6 batsman to bat. he not only defended the runs and didn’t allowed the batsman to play big shots, but took the wickets of middle and lower order batsman as well.

Similar situation happened in the World Cup 2019. In the Low scoring match against Afghanistan Mohammad Shami got the last over to defend 16 runs. He gave only 4 runs and took a hat-trick to finish the game. After Chetan Sharma he became second Indian bowler to take hat-trick in world cup. India won the match with 11 runs. It was Jaspreet Bumrah who bowled penultimate over and conceded just 5 runs. Many cricket experts considered the pair DEADLY in both Powerplays and Slog Overs. But the Mohammad Shami’s on and off fitness became a major hurdle for selectors to come up with a fix bowling line.

With all these past performances especially in T20s. Mohammad Shami’s admirers are eagerly looking for him to dismiss some bails and fill one of the widest gap in India squad.

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