The legend of Mohammed Shami keeps growing.
While his heroics with the ball during the World Cup has earned Shami plaudits from everyone, the recent revealation that he played the tournament with a lot of pain because of his heel injury, and needed to take injections to manage the pain throughout the World Cup, has made fans respect him even more.
Despite not featuring in India’s first four matches, Mohammed Shami ended up as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with 24 wickets at an average of 10.7 and strike rate of 12.2 – simply sensational numbers. He recorded a historic 7-wicket haul in the semi-final against New Zealand. Shami and Bumrah even took 3 wickets in the powerplay in the final against Australia, but others couldn’t back them up and India los the final.
Mohammed Shami regularly took pain injections in World Cup
Mohammed Shami’s Bengal teammate recently revealed to PTI that the pacer played the World Cup with a heel injury that aggravated with time. But he didn’t give up, and took injections to bear the pain and play for his country, and performed outstandingly.
“Shami has a chronic left heel issue. A lot of people don’t know that he took injections regularly during World Cup and played the entire tournament through pain. But you must understand that as you grow older, recovery from each niggle or big injury takes that more time,” Shami’s Bengal teammate told PTI.
While he managed to do well in the World Cup despite the injury, that came at a huge cost as Mohammed Shami missed the South Africa tour.
India dearly missed Shami in the first Test in Centurion which India lost by an innings after South Africa, on the back of a century from Dean Elgar and half-centurion from David David Bedingham and Marco Jansen, piled up over 400 runs on a spicy surface.
Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna were disappointing with the ball and the team clearly lacked the experience and penetration of Shami.
India will be hoping that Shami recovers for the home Test series against England next month.
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