Team India pacer Mohammed Shami was observed delivering bowling advice to Pakistan’s star speed bowler Shaheen Afridi in advance of their much anticipated T20 World Cup match, which is scheduled to take place on October 23 in Melbourne.
The pacers at Gabba were practicing together in the practice nets.
Shaheen Shah Afridi receives seam position advice from Shami in a video posted on Twitter by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). Shaheen can be seen approaching Shami in the video and addressing him by asking him how is he.
The experienced Indian pacer’s bowling, in particular his capacity to bowl the ball with an upright seam, was then lauded by Shaheen. Shaheen claimed that he has been an admirer of Shami’s wrist stance and upright seam ever since the bowler first began to observe him.
Shami responded to Shaheen by stating that if the release point is accurate, the seam will be excellent by default.
Notably, Shaheen is rejoining the Pakistan team after missing a month due to a knee injury, and Shami, who took Jasprit Bumrah’s position in the T20 World Cup squad, is making his way back to the T20 setup for India after nearly a year.
While bowling the last over against Australia in the warm-up game on Monday, Shami was at his deadly best despite returning to T20I cricket after a lengthy absence. He took three wickets to keep the hosts from scoring the 11 runs necessary for a victory, enabling India to win by six runs.
Will Shami make an impact?
Shami has positioned himself as an all-format bowler ever since his debut. While Test cricket is still his finest sport, there is little question about his ability to get wickets in ODIs.
Shami has taken 45 wickets in 35 innings of Twenty20 cricket overall since the beginning of 2021, averaging 1.28 wickets per game. He improved from his career rate of 8.28 to 7.89 in the economy. Shami has also bowled towards the end of the innings during this time and held his own, conceding 9.86 runs per over and averaging 13.08.
In order to put things into perspective, Harshal Patel, who has been suggested as the greatest remedy for India’s problems with death bowling, has shipped 9.94 runs per over and averaged 17.2 in the death overs.
Shami also does a great job with the new ball. Only 12 bowlers have taken more wickets this year than Shami in the Powerplay. Of the 11 batsmen he has faced during the field restrictions, he has accounted for 24.09 on average and 6.62 runs per over. Only Avesh Khan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar among Indians have taken more wickets. In contrast to Avesh’s 27 and Bhuvneshwar’s 34 innings, Shami has only bowled in 16.
When compared directly, Shami is one of the very few Indian bowlers to reach the top bracket during both the Powerplay overs and the last over.
