India’s pace-spearhead Mohammed Shami praised the efforts of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja after India defeated South Africa by 203 runs in the first Test on Sunday. There every player did pretty well both with bat and ball. Shami said the conditions of the pitch was in their favour as he took five wickets while Jadeja bagged four. Ashwin may have taken just one wicket in the second innings but had picked up seven in the first innings and in the process, he equalled former Sri Lanka spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan to become the fastest bowler to take 350 Test wickets in 66 matches.

“Ashwin has a lot of Test cricket experience, and bowled very well in both the first and second innings,” Mohammed Shami said on Star Sports’ Cricket Live programme after the match. “When you have great bowlers like Ashwin and Jadeja in the team, the fast bowlers can breathe easy and relax, knowing that they are there,” the pacer added.

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Shami also praised India captain Virat Kohli for giving the bowlers freedom to decide the length of their spells as well.

“Virat Kohli as a captain always hears us out and gives us the freedom to follow our strategy during the match. He has given us the freedom to take a call on whether we want to bowl 5 overs or 7 overs or more — he says ‘if you have the power, go ahead and bowl’. That’s when we take a call that we will bowl three overs but with full power… That’s the understanding we have. He trusts us, and we trust him,” Shami said.