Dubai, Feb 21 Former India spinner Piyush Chawla hailed Mohammed Shami’s impactful comeback to ICC events in the Men in Blue's commanding win over Bangladesh in their Champions opener and said whenever the veteran pacer plays in the ICC tournament, he turns into a different bowler.
Playing in his first Champions Trophy, Shami delivered high-quality performance, finishing with impressive figures of 5-53, leading India to a resounding six-wicket victory against Bangladesh in Dubai on Thursday.
With a five-fer in Dubai, Shami became India’s leading wicket-taker in ICC ODI events, surpassing Zaheer Khan (59 wickets), as he took his tally to 60 scalps. In the process, he also achieved a significant personal milestone of becoming the fastest Indian bowler to reach 200 wickets. He now has 202 wickets in ODIs.
"ICC tournaments and Mohammed Shami—it's a great love story. Whenever he plays in an ICC tournament, he turns into a different bowler altogether. He’s coming back from injury, and while he looked a bit rusty in the recent bilateral series, the positive sign was that he was getting his overs in. Today, he looked much better.
Shami, 34, also became the second-quickest to pick 200 men’s ODI wickets, where he’s tied with former Pakistan spinner and head coach Saqlain Mushtaq, taking 104 matches to reach the milestone. The leader in this list is Australia’s left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc, who did it in 102 matches.
Moreover, he is also the quickest ever bowler to reach 200 men’s ODI wickets in terms of balls bowled, which stands at 5126 deliveries, ahead of Starc’s 5240 balls.
"We are yet to see a 100 per cent Shami, but this five-wicket haul will definitely boost his confidence. It’s crucial to assess the conditions, and Shami, with his upright seam position, knows exactly where to pitch the ball.
"He consistently hit the six-to-eight-meter mark, which allowed him to get movement off the surface. That’s why he was successful, picking up early wickets with the new ball. It was also great to see him using variations, including well-disguised slower balls," Chawla said on JioHotstar.
The right-arm pacer was coming off a 14-month injury-induced hiatus, in which he had a heel operation on his Achilles tendon. He had injured his ankle during the ODI World Cup in 2023, which kept him out of action for more than a year.
After a long absence due to an ankle injury needing surgery, the 34-year-old made a successful return to international cricket when he featured in four white-ball fixtures for India against England across the last month.
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