Mohammed Shami
Mohammed Shami was born on 3rd September 1990. He is an Indian international cricketer who plays for India in all formats as a right-arm fast medium bowler. He is one of the best cricketer of the world. Now Shami has played for Bangel in domestic cricket and for four teams in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He bowls the ball off the seam and uses swing, including reverse swing, to move the ball both directions. Mohammed Shami has been reputed to have an edge in the death (slog) overs of a limited-overs innings and, in all formats, has been described as being at times “unplayable”. Shami finished as India’s leading wicket taker in the ICC World Cup 2023, besides being the fastest bowler to take 50 wickets in the 48 years history of Cricket World Cup spanning 13 editions.
Early life and career of Mohammed Shami
Mohammed Shami grew up in the village of Sahaspur in Amroha, Uttar Pradesh, one of five children. His father, Tauseef Ali was a farmer who had been a fast bowler in his youth. When Shami was 15 he was taken to Badruddin Siddique, a cricket coach in Moradabad, a town 22 kilometers (14 mi) from his home.
“When I first saw Mohammed Shami bowling at the nets as a 15-year-old kid, I knew this boy is not ordinary. So I decided to train him. For one year I prepared him for the UP trials, as we don’t have club cricket over here. He was very co-operative, very regular and very hard working. He never took a day off from training. During the under 19 trials he bowled really well, but due to politics, he missed out on selection. They asked me to bring him next year, but at that moment I didn’t want Shami to miss one year. So I advised his parents to send him to Kolkata.
Domestic career of Mohammed Shami
Mohammed Shami took four wickets on his senior debut for Bengal in a Twenty20 match in October 2010. The following month, he made his first-class cricket debut against Assam at Eden Gardens, taking three wickets in a high scoring match.
In February 2012 Mohammed Shami’s bowling helped East Zone win their first Duleep Trophy title; He took eight wickets in the match and was described as “outstanding, consistently getting bounce and zip from just short of a good length”. He had only played in the match following an injury to Abu Nechim, but it proved to be a significant breakthrough in Shami’s career; he had been described as “little-known” before the match, but by April was being touted as a player to watch in the upcoming Indian Premier League season.
Mohammed Shami’s cricket journey
Mohammed Shami was selected to tour the West Indies with the India A side and “impressed” with his bowling on pitches which were considered to be generally unhelpful to fast bowlers. Mohammed Shami was considered to have been the “surprise package” of the tour for India A, and impressed the team’s coach Lalchand Rajput with his strength and consistency whilst bowling, as well as with his batting; batting tenth in the first unofficial Test match, Mohammed Shami scored 27 runs in a partnership of 73 with Cheteshwar Pujara which won the match for India A. Later in the year he was one of only two fast bowlers retained for the India A tour of New Zealand, although he only played in two of the six matches on the tour.
During the 2012–13 Ranji Trophy, Mohammed Shami took 11 wickets in a match against Madhya Pradesh in November, including seven wickets for 79 runs (7/79) in the first innings, a return which included a hat-trick. The following month he took 4/36 and 6/71 against Hyderabad on a green wicket at Eden Gardens, his second ten-wicket match in only his 15th first-class game. In the five Ranji Trophy matches he played during the season and He took 28 wickets at a bowling average of 21.25 runs per wicket, and in the 18 first-class matches he played before his Test match debut in 2013 Shami took 71 wickets, an average of four wickets each match.
International cricket
Test career
Mohammed Shami made his Test debut against West Indies in November 2013 in front of his home crowd at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. In the first innings, he took his maiden Test wicket – that of Kieran Powell – and finished with figures of 4/71. In the second innings, He took 5/47. His match total of nine wickets, for 118 runs, is the most by an Indian pacer on debut, surpassing Munaf Patel‘s seven wickets for 97 runs at Mohali in 2006.
Mohammed Shami was selected for India’s tour of South Africa and New Zealand, taking 16 Test wickets in total. He had little success on India’s 2014 tour of England, however, finishing with just five wickets in three matches. He was involved in a 111-run partnership for the 10th wicket, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the first Test at Trent Bridge, scoring his maiden half-century in the process and helping India post 457 in the first innings.
Mohammed Shami took 15 wickets in three Tests during India’s 2014–15 tour of Australia, and went on to become the 20th Indian fast bowler to take 100 Test wickets, reaching the milestone in 29 Tests.
In 2018, he toured England with India, playing in all five Tests. Shami finished the series with 16 wickets, including six in the fourth Test.
ODI career of Mohammed Shami
Mohammed Shami was selected for India’s One Day international (ODI) series against Pakistan, replacing his Bengali teammate Ashok Dinda and subsequently made his debut in the third ODI of the series in Delhi on 6 January 2013 and he returned figures of 1/23 from 9 overs in a low-scoring game that India won by 10 runs. In October 2013, he was selected in India’s squad to face the touring Australians. After being left out of the team for the first three ODI matches, he played in all the remaining matches, taking seven wickets, including two three-wicket hauls and emerged as the fourth leading wicket-taker of the series.
In India’s tour of New Zealand in 2014, Shami took 11 wickets in ODIs at an average of 28.72. On 5 March 2014, during 2014 Asia Cup, against Afghanistan, Mohammed Shami reached the target of 50 ODI wickets in his 29th innings. He ended the tournament with 9 wickets at 23.59.
Mohammed Shami took 10 wickets at 17.40 against West Indies in October 2014. In the 2nd ODI of the series he got his best bowling figure in ODIs as he picked up 4 wickets for 36 runs in his 9.3 overs.
Mohammed Shami was in the 15-man squad for 5 ODIs against Sri Lanka in November 2014, but he was replaced by Dhawal Kulkarni due to a toe injury he suffered during the West Indies series.
For his performances in 2014, he was named in the World ODI XI by the ICC.
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