When the Indian team was revealed for the first World Cup game vs South Africa, one noticed a notable omission. Mohammed Shami, the man who had gotten us the most wickets, was missing. Yes, Bhuvneshwar Kumar deserved his place in the side, but it did seem strange that someone of Shami's importance was not in the side. Well, it did not matter, India won easily. The winning combination was not changed against Australia either and once again we were the victors.
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After a washout vs New Zealand, India took on rivals Pakistan and once again crushed them. But there was a price to pay - Bhuvneshwar got injured and was ruled out at least for the next couple of matches. Enter Shami vs Afghanistan and he would bowl a spell to save India's life. The Afghans stretched us to the limit and it came down to them needing 12 runs from 4 balls and 3 wickets in hand. Shami extinguished all Afghan hopes with a hat-trick and finished with 4-40. We had won, Shami was the hero.
Think he was done? No way. Next up it was West Indies' turn to face his pace. Chasing 269 to win, they fell prey to some top quality bowling and succumbed to 143. His figures read 4/16 and the man was proving to be a wicket-taking machine. 8 wickets in 2 games and he was not in the playing XI at the start to begin with.
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Against England, despite Bhuvneshwar being fit, India opted to stick with Shami and why not? You do not drop someone from a crucial game when he is good form do you? India would lose by 31 runs and Shami did get slammed for 69 runs. But in all that chaos he took 5 wickets. Yes, out of 7 victims that India did scalp, all but two went to him. Jasprit Bumrah may have been our premier pacer in the World Cup, the leading the pace attack for the last 3 games has been none other than Shami.
Out of the 27 wickets that India have taken in the 3 matches he has played, 13 have gone to Shami. That is nearly half of the tally. He has bowled with pace, bounce and maintained a good line along with excellent length. Just what you want to see in a fast bowler. Who knows how much damage he would have caused if he had been playing from the start?
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India have 2 games to go and possibly another 2 after that if all goes well. Should India go the distance, Shami knows that he will have a key role to play. He is one of the best pacers around right now and forms part of a lethal bowling attack under the helm of the Men in Blue's skipper Virat Kohli.?