‘Cowards bowl with cross seam’: Mohammed Shami’s coach recalls the hard grind that made him an ODI force | Cricket-world-cup News

Out of his 23 scalps in this World Cup, Mohammed Shami has bagged 18 under lights. His upright seam position has been the talk of the tournament, but it is his ability to move the ball both ways in the evening that has made the 33-year-old lethal.
As the adage goes, “Home is where one starts from,” the transformation of Shami, once tagged as a Test bowler who leaks runs in white-ball cricket, started right at his home in Sahaspur in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad drict.
His childhood coach, Mohammed Badruddin, recalls how he even suggested to his ward that he should try and bowl cross- seam, and it was the first time the soft-spoken Shami had given a stern reply to his coach.
“He gave me a stare,” laughs Badruddin. “He told me ‘ye cross-seam darpok daalte hai (cowards bowl cross-seam). My strength is my seam, and I am not going to compromise on that.’”
“He never uses cross-seam or a wobble-seam. Even if he gets hit, he never compromises with his seam position.”

Badruddin says it was during the lockdown in 2020, when Shami started working on his white-ball bowling.
“Every morning, he will keep six white balls in a bucket full of water. It was during that time that he prepared a cricket pitch with floodlights at his farmhouse. He used to bowl with those wet balls at night continuously for three to four hours,” says Badruddin.
“On some social media platform, he had read that a former India cricketer called him a red-ball bowler. He would say, ‘Mujhe apne upar se ye thappa hatana hai (I want to get rid of this tag),’” he says.
It took Shami three years to master the white ball.
Damien Wright, who spent a couple of seasons as a bowling coach at Punjab Kings, explains Shami’s method and compares him with the likes of Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson, who can change the game in one spell.
“I was amazed with the way he used to go about things and particularly when bowling in the nets. He is a real perfection in how he releases the ball. He has a fantastic skillset, but there is a method behind that madness. He gets so many revolutions behind the ball, using his fingers on the seam. It was amazing to watch him do his magic,” says Wright, who currently works as a bowling coach at the University of Tasmania.
“At Punjab Kings, he was our leading wicket-taker. Back then, he was desperate to break into the Indian white-ball team. He was always a beautiful bowler to watch in Test cricket but with the white ball, he has improved significantly. He was always a terrific bowler with the new ball but what has impressed me the most is his bowling in the middle overs and at the death,” says Wright.

Wright says Shami is one of the bowlers whose deliveries skid a lot after hitting the surface. He says, “You watch that Ben Stokes dismissal in Lucknow. That ball generated pace off the pitch, more than what the speedometer tells us.”
“The seam is always in a great position, and when the ball hits the deck with the seam, which is the hardest part of the ball, it generates pace and bounce. Shami’s ball gets quicker from the time he releases it from the hand and the time it reaches the batsman,” the Australian said.
“He is also a rhythm bowler. He has got a strong action. He has got a nice front-leg brace, he has got a nice run-up as well. He might not be that quick but is very similar to the likes of Brett Lee and Mitchell Jhonson. Like Shami, they also used to end the match in one spell,” he says.
Glenn Maxwell, who has played the innings of the World Cup so far, too has showered praise on Shami. “Mohammed Shami’s seam is the straightest thing in the world. The carpenter would love to get a straight angle,” Maxwell has told Adam Gilchr and Michael Vaughan on a podcast called ‘Club Prairie Fire’.
Perseverance pays
Meanwhile, Badruddin credits Shami’s hard work, which has made him a formidable bowler.
“After coming back from a tour, people generally take a rest, go on a vacation. But not Shami. He will sleep for one day and on the next, he will hit the nets straightaway. Either he will train on his own or call a dozen kids from an academy and will bowl at them from five or six paces,” he says.
Shami, too, allowed a peek into how he spent his break after the World Test Championship (WTC) final in the summer.
“My break never seemed like a break to me because I have an elaborate training set-up at my home, and I ended up training more at home than when I am with the Indian team,” he would say after a five-wicket haul against Australia during the three-match series before the World Cup.

Shami’s seam position and bowling action have not only garnered a massive fan base in India but has also become a subject of interest at the University of Tasmania. Wright explains it to youngsters showing some video footage.Most Read
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“You have to break down his technique, how strong his wr position is, and I try to explain to the kids why he is such a good bowler. They are addicted to his bowling videos,” says Wright.

Shami is flying in this World Cup, and his seam position is being admired across borders and continents. Last year, during the T20 World Cup in Australia, Shaheen Shah Afridi had told Shami at the nets, “I have been following you since I started bowling and I am a big fan of your wr position.”
But it all started at home for Shami, the perfection who loves his seam position and hates compromising with it.