‘Menace in the nets, a panda out of it’: Mohammed Shami’s Bengal teammates on the pacer | Cricket-world-cup News

On Saturday afternoon, Shreevats Goswami went to meet his Under-19 teammate Virat Kohli for lunch. The two friends were catching up after a long time but the talk of the table was Mohammed Shami. Goswami couldn’t help himself and asked Kohli about his former Bengal teammate Shami.“Virat explained to me why Shami is so difficult to face. He said ‘Shami makes a subtle change with his fingers. It is easy to read Jasprit (Bumrah) but with Shami, you don’t know which ball is coming in and which is going away,” Goswami tells The Indian Express.
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“Virat is true also. Shami is a menace to face in the nets. I remember after his first India call-up. He was training with us in an indoor facility at Eden. Dada (Sourav Ganguly) was also present there and Shami was strictly told the coaches not to bowl bouncers. But Shami bhai will end up bowling a couple after every six or seven balls. I remember Dada was so excited that he later gave Shami the green light to bowl three bouncers in six balls,” says Goswami, who has recently announced his retirement from first-class cricket.
It was under Manoj Tiwary that Mohammad Shami made his first-class debut in 2010. Tiwary still remembers how he was smiling grin to grin after he watched Shami bowl for the first time at the Eden Gardens in Bengal’s Ranji Trophy camp.

“The first time I saw him in the nets, there was a smile on my face. You suddenly feel like, oh we have got a real deal. My first impression was that he will play for India. He has been the kind of bowler, who will never hesitate to bowl bouncer in the nets. He is still the same. Generally, the newcomers used to be scared to bowl a bouncer against a senior batsman or the captain but not Shami. For him, he was preparing for the match,” said Tiwary.
India’s Mohammed Shami celebrates after taking the wicket of Sri Lanka’s Angelo Mathews (Reuters)
“Uska kehna tha ki batsman apna practice kar raha hai toh bowler bhi toh khud ka practice karega. Match mey ja ke bouncer toh khelna hi hai na (If batsmen are training for the match then bowlers will also do the same. A batsman will have to face bouncers in the match then why not in the nets). He was very clear with his thought process. The first time you will face Shami, you will immediately realise how good your feet movement is,” he says.
Shami moved to Kolkata in 2006-07 after he was overlooked for the Uttar Pradesh U-19 team. He started playing cricket at Dalhousie Athletic Club, a year later, he moved to Town Club. The next destination was Mohun Bagan, for whom he has been playing for the last three-and-a-half seasons.

“It was not easy to convince Shami to join Mohun Bagan,” recalls Abdul Monayem.
Monayem was the coach of the Mohun Bagan team, and a good friend of Shami’s childhood coach, Mohammed Badruddin.
“Badr bhai always used to talk about Shami from the time he was 13 or 14. During a match against Town Club, I lured him to come and join Mohun Bagan. But he declined straightaway saying he can’t betray Debabratra Das, who back then was Town Club’s secretary (He is now CAB’s joint secretary).
“Badr bhai convinced him that if he would play for Bagan, he would come on the radar of Bengal selectors. Badr bhai also played with his ego, saying he is happy taking wickets against lower-division teams. Within a year, he was part of the Bengal team and If i am not wrong, he was roped in KKR in 2011,” says Monayem.
Monayem credited legendary Pakan pacer Wasim Akram for Shami’s rise. “Wasim Akram has worked a lot with him. He had a very good wr position but Wasim bhai worked on his release. He was not getting much game time for KKR, but he was always around Wasim. It was Wasim Akram, who made him the bowler he is, and of course, he has worked hard too,” he says.
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“Shami bhai explains things without complicating it. His advice to me was that if you can swing the ball from a good length area, you will be successful in all three formats. He told me it has been his mantra since the time he has started playing cricket. Yes, he has gone for runs but you will not see him missing his length very often,” says Akash.
Tiwary says Shami’s biomechanics is in discussion nowadays but it is his control on the length that made him the best Indian bowler in any condition. “His biggest strength in bowling is his control with the new ball. Shami should be the first pick, followed Bumrah and Siraj. That new ball length, where batters don’t know whether to commit or whether to leave, only Shami has impeccable control on that length in the world. He is coming as the first change. Suppose he will get the new ball, and the kind of rhythm he is in, he might end up taking seven or eight wickets in the match,” says Tiwary.
Goswami, who was Shami’s roommate when the pacer first came into the Bengal side, says, “At nets, he was a menace to face but of it, he was like a panda. He was always on his phone. He will have breakfast for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He was laid back, not too excited to train in the gym, used to sleep all the time, but you give him the ball in the match, and all of a sudden, we used to see a different Shami,” laughs Goswami.