Mohammed Shami reveals tactics to succeed with the pink ball ahead of the Day/Night Test against Bangladesh
India’s most successful pace bowler this year, Mohammed Shami, feels that altering his length will be imperative to do well against Bangladesh in the maiden Day-Night Test to be played in India at Eden Gardens in Kolkata from November 22.
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The hosts are 1-0 up in the two-match series, and Shami had major role to play in India’s win at Indore, picking up seven wickets in the Test. Shami was quoted as saying in a talk show on Star Sport,
“What one thing bowlers should do is keep an eye on the wicket and how is it behaving, so what I do is as the pitch gets slower I keep pushing myself and when I notice that the batsman is uncomfortable I go over the top. So the length has to keep changing.”
In the same show, former India opener Gautam Gambhir also praised the strength in the Indian bowling attack. Gambhir said,
“If you see other oppositions, some teams have got quality fast bowling attacks, some have quality spinners but if you look at this Indian side, they’ve got two quality spinners, three quality seamers plus Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar who are not in the playing 11.”
Shami has had a memorable 2019. In 7 Tests, he has picked up 31 wickets at an average of 15.22 and a strike rate of 34 with one five-wicket haul. The fast bowler will have fond memories of Eden Gardens, where he picked up nine wickets on debut against West Indies in 2013.
The Indian fast bowler also gave advice to Bangladesh pacer Abu Jayed ahead of the Kolkata Test.
"I spoke with Shami bhai. There are some similarities between him and me since we both use the seam. I have seen him bowl a lot of times and I paid extra attention to how he was bowling," Abu Jayed was quoted as saying in a report on the ICC website.
Jayed added,
"I have compared his height to mine to find out if he is taller than me or of equal height. Then I figured maybe I could bowl like him."
India won the first Test at Indore by a massive margin of an innings and 130 runs. Preparations for the Day-Night Test have been underway in full swing since.