This is WHY Sunil Gavaskar thinks Mohammed Shami is like a leopard

Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar lauded Team India pacer Mohammad Shami and compared him with former West Indies great Malcolm Marshall.

Marshall is by far one of the best-ever crickets to have played the sport, picking up 157 wickets in 136 ODIs and 376 wickets in 81 Test matches for the 'Men In Maroon'. 

During an interview with Star Sports, Gavaskar revealed how he still gets nightmare about Marshall's bowling.

"He reminds me of Malcolm Marshall, who still wakes me up from deep sleep," Gavaskar said while speaking about Shami.

Mohammad Shami had a peach of a 2019 and picked up 42 wickets to finish number 1 on the list of highest wicket-taker in One Day International (ODI) cricket.

He has been a key part of the Indian squad in the ODI and Test formats of the game this year, bamboozling batsmen with his seam bowling on multiple occasions.

The 29-year-old had a fruitful ICC World Cup 2019 campaign too, finishing second on the list of highest wicket-taker for the 'Men In Blue'.

Gavaskar then went on to draw similarities between Shami's run-up and a "leopard going for a kill". 

"When he is running in, when the spider cam actually takes it, it is such a sight. It is almost like a leopard going for a kill," he said. 

Shami is not part of the Team India squad which will take on Sri Lanka and Australia in a three-match ODI and T20I series in January 2020.

List of Indian bowlers who ended as the highest ODI wicket-taker in a calendar year:

1998 – Ajit Agarkar (58)

2004 – Irfan Pathan (47)

2019 – Mohammed Shami (42*)

2014 – Mohammed Shami (38)​

1986 – Kapil Dev (32)