Mohammad Shami has been on a great run for India in the ODI World Cup 2023. In 2023, across seven matches of the 50-over megaevent, played entirely in India, the 33-year-old pacer picked up 24 wickets. He was not in the playing XI for the first four matches, and later on, when Hardik Pandya got injured, he replaced Shardul Thakur in the playing XI and took the tournament by storm. Shami emerged as the leading wicket-taker of the tournament and played a big role in India’s unbeaten run to the final.
While he returned to the field with the men’s cricket team in the same period, he has faced quite a few problems regarding injuries and never played any competitive matches since then. The pacer from Amroha is likely to make his comeback for India later this year.
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The other day, he shared a video of himself bowling in the nets as an update about his recovery; recently, in a podcast, he has opened up about his battles during India’s nets session with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. If he was to be believed, Kohli likes getting challenged by him in the nets, but Rohit just refuses to face him.
In an interview with Shubhankar Sharma on his YouTube channel, Shami said, “Virat se to mera hamesha se rehta hai ki hum ek dusre ko challenge dete hain. Woh acche tareeke ke shots khaatal hai aur main usko out kar deta hoon. Bonding aur dosti sab usimein aa jaata hai.”.
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“It also helps you focus and put in the requisite effort as you simulate, for instance, fielding positions, two slips in place, two gully fielders. So, I challenge Virat to come at me and score runs. We enjoy such things,” said Mohammed Shami.
Nobody likes facing Mohammed Shami in the Indian nets.
– Rohit Sharma तो Nets में मुझे Avoid करता है।
– Virat Kohli और मैं एक दूसरे से Nets में Healthy Competition रखते हैं । #MohammedShami #ViratKohli #RohitSharma— Shubhankar Mishra (@shubhankrmishra) July 19, 2024
“Rohit to pehle he kehta hai, ‘mai isko khelna pasand nahi karta’. Woh to pehle hi mana kar deta hai” he added.
India is going to visit Sri Lanka later this month for a white-ball series and will then take on Bangladesh in a two-match Test series at home in September and October. Shami, who last played for India on November 19, 2023, will hope to get fit by then and feature in the red-ball series.
