After the tough fights in the first two sessions, visitors India had finally some smile in the last session of the opening day of the first Test of five-match Test series against the hosts England at Edgbaston (Birmingham) on Wednesday. Indian pacer Mohammed Shami has claimed that the wicket is a little slower and need to work hard for the bowlers to get success.

At the one stage, England was in very commanding position on 216/3. But the hosts were in trouble in the last session as they finished the day on 285/9 after the Indian bowlers backed on track.

While Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was the star of the day with the bowling figure of 25-7-60-4, Indian pacer Shami also bowled well with the bowling figure of 19-2-64-2.

Talking about the pitch, Shami said after the end of the day 1, “As you have seen the wicket is a little slower, there is hard work for sure, we have to maintain good line and length all day. It was a little tough initially because it was slow and a little damp. As the day went on, the wicket came good. As a bowling unit we have stopped them well from 216-3, you can see what we have done.”

Since the completion of his South Africa tour, Shami has faced a lot of trouble in his personal life.  Due to that reason, he missed most of the IPL 2018, but Shami has claimed that his passion for cricket helped him to return to the game.

Shami said, “(The tour of) South Africa was a long time ago and there have been some off-field issues after that. I had to fight a lot in between but my effort was that I have to keep doing what I love most and what is most important to me (cricket). I wanted to just keep doing my job and then see what happens to the rest of the stuff in my life. Whatever difficulties I face, first I wanted to play cricket and keep doing it. The result is in front of us.”

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Shami also said that he is happy with his Wednesday’s performance as well as team’s performance.

Talking about the performance, Shami said, “As a bowling unit and as an individual, I am very happy today. This is the thing I have worked hard for and we have been able to bring it forward successfully. There are ups and downs in life and in your family. But when playing for your country there is a responsibility and when you do that job properly, I think that’s the best thing. So I am very happy with today.”

In the second session of the day, Shami dismissed the set opener Keaton Jennings and the no.4 batsman Dawid Malan in the quick succession. Talking about their success in the bowling on the first day, Shami claimed that they tried to control the line and length.

Shami said, “Initially when you bowl on such wickets here you get an idea how it will behave and what you need to keep doing. So there weren’t many changes in our approach during the day but we tried to control line and length through the day, and try not to give any width. The lesser the width to batsmen, the better.”

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Shami also praised the Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin for his dominating performance throughout the day as he claimed that they didn’t miss the second spinner due to having an experienced spinner.

The 28-year-old said, “He bowled very well today. Usually in English conditions, you see fast bowlers doing well. For a spinner to come early in the spell and do so well, it gave us confidence too. Overall the fast bowlers did well and he combined well with us. So we didn’t miss the second spinner as we had experience on our side and it can be seen in the results.”

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Talking about their further strategy in the lengthy Test series, Shami has pointed out that it will be changed according to the condition and situation.

Shami concluded, “If you see in a Test match, there is a lot of time and you can come back if there is a good partnership. You bowl according to the wicket and batsmen, so as a captain or as a bowler, you get to think. You can assess situations as per the wicket, how much grass is there or not, and that’s how you choose your bowling unit and then work on the basis of that. You have to work within that unit and believe that you can win.”