It's not easy to impress Sourav Ganguly. But thanks to his exploits in the World Cup, Mohammed Shami has garnered praise from everyone, including the talismanic former India skipper.
It's not easy to impress Sourav Ganguly. But thanks to his exploits in the World Cup, Mohammed Shami has garnered praise from everyone, including the talismanic former India skipper. With 12 scalps in four matches, the Bengal pacer has spearheaded the Indian attack in admirable fashion, so much so that the defending champions have barely missed the services of Ishant Sharma. Mentored by the likes of Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar and Team India bowling coach Bharat Arun, he has averaged a miserly 11.75 per wicket, second only to Australia's Mitchell Starc.
At the pre-match media chatter here on Friday, Shami credited skipper MS Dhoni for backing him all along. "I have played all the formats of the game under his captaincy. I have made all my debuts under his captaincy. I like the way he handles the team and handles me as a bowler. I am always free and I have never been tense when he has captained the side. He is not someone who demands certain things from me. He is someone who has always told me about my mistakes and asked me not to repeat them in the future. He never gets angry," Shami said.
A salient feature of Shami's world-class performance has been the use of the short ball. Sent down at a consistent speed of over 140 kph, he has troubled batsmen like Younis Khan, Hashim Amla and Chris Gayle. Against Ireland the other day, Shami went for runs in his first spell, but picked up three wickets later on. "It depends what kind of a situation you are in and what plans are in place. You look to work on those plans and bowl accordingly.
As a bowler, you have your own plan. So does the captain. You need to keep both in mind while bowling. We follow those plans and if Plan 'A' is not working, then we switch to Plan 'B'," he explained.
If the 2011 World Cup was all about Sachin Tendulkar, then this bunch wants to win it for those who may not be part of the side four years later, in England. "Winning the World Cup in itself is a huge motivation for us. All eyes are on the World Cup and everyone has a lot of expectations from us. The focus is to win the tournament come what may. In 2011, everyone in the team worked towards achieving that goal because it was Sachin Tendulkar's last World Cup. We, too, are playing this World Cup in the same way. Who knows who would be missing from the next World Cup! We are playing the World Cup with the same kind of intensity," he said.
Shami uses an interesting mechanism to get over the pain of a bad day in the office. "I would like to believe that I haven't had that bad a patch thus far. It is by God's grace that everything is going well at the moment for me.
Whenever I go through a rough patch or a bad day, I go back to my room and think about my mistakes. Or, I talk to my captain and teammates and ask them for suggestions. I try to rectify the mistakes in my practice sessions and I become alright," he explained.
What's the team's mantra with the knock-outs around the corner? "We will try and continue to do what we have been doing well till now and move on to the next stage. Our main focus would be to make minimum mistakes and continue with this flow," he said. Simple but effective nonetheless.
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