Mohammed Shami hadn’t played a T20I since last year’s T20 World Cup. He hadn’t played a single match of any competitive level since the July tour of England. He’d been down with covid, missed two T20I series, and was the last man of the squad to fly to Australia. He hadn’t bowled a single ball in India’s defence of 186 against Australia in their first warm-up match on Monday at The Gabba. Until Rohit Sharma summoned the senior pacer to defend 11 runs in the last over.
Shami was Bumrah’s replacement in the squad, getting the place largely based on his immense experience in Australian conditions and in ICC tournaments, and on his new-ball and middle-overs exploits for Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2022. For Shami isn’t better in the death than the in-form Mohammed Siraj, who many thought should have replaced Bumrah.
But here he is, Shami, tasked to defend 11 runs against pace-basher Pat Cummins, who can hit the ball long, and he almost did on the third ball of the last over after taking 2 doubles on the first two balls.
Cummins hit a full toss ball from Shami down the ground and was sailing for a six, but in came Virat Kohli’s right hand, plucking the ball out of thin air very close to the boundary line.
After three ordinary full-ish balls, Shami went short to Ashton Agar, who missed his pull and was then run out at the non-striker’s end, trying to sneak a bye. The next two deliveries will give the Indian team and their fans some relief and confidence in Shami as Bumrah’s replacement as the speedster fired two pin-point yorkers, bowling out Josh Inglis and Kane Richardson to seal a close win by 6 runs.
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma was queried after the match about why Shami was introduced so late, if he’d intended to bowl him at all in this warm-up game.
“He (Shami) is coming back after a long time, so we wanted to give him an over. Wanted to give him a challenge and let him bowl the final over, and you saw what he did,” Rohit Sharma said after the match.
Earlier, KL Rahul (57 off 33) and Suryakumar Yadav (50 off 33) slammed half-centuries.
India’s second warm-up game is scheduled for Wednesday against New Zealand.
