Team India has one of the world’s best bowling attacks. On Days 1 and 3 of the first Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test against Australia in Nagpur, this was on display. Ravindra Jadeja was the standout bowler in the first innings, while Ashwin took five wickets in the second.
India also has a dominant unit of pace bowlers, which has helped the team win many matches. In an interview with Cricbuzz on the ‘Rise of New India’ show, veteran India wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik named Mohammed Shami as the “toughest bowler” he has ever faced in the Indian team. He went on to say that “legends” like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma “hated” playing Shami.
“If I have to use one word for Shami it will be ‘Torture Shami’. Because in my whole career, he is the toughest bowler I have faced in the nets, he has got me out a couple of times as well in the match. But he has been nasty to play in the nets. I thought I was the only one so then I asked Kohli, Rohit, and they are all legends of the game and they all said they hate playing Shami,” he said.
For a fast bowler, the revs are close to 1000 rpm: Dinesh Karthik
“What makes him so special is – all of his strength come into play in net session, his upright seam position, his natural length, that nasty length of 6-8 metre mark, where the two major mode of dismissals are caught behind or caught at slip. And you can see why he has been unlucky over a period of time as well because that length says that he gets the batsman beaten numerous times but never gets that wicket. He has travelled overseas in series where he constantly ended up being the bad bowler because he is the bowler got gets most deliveries beaten, but never the amount of wickets to show for,” he explained.
“For a fast bowler, the revs are close to 1000 rpm when the ball is released, but for Shami it is close to 1500-1600. That is what makes him special. When you have that amount of backs-spin, when there is little bit of the wicket, he is literally unplayable,” he added.
