West Indies’ legend Michael Holding believes that Mohammed Shami’s ability to bowl constantly in the right areas is his “real strength”.
“You don’t find Shami spraying the ball all over the place. When you spray the ball all over the place, batsmen get relief, watching those balls go away. If you are constantly (bowling) in the right areas, attacking these batsmen, it creates more and more pressure and they are more liable to make mistakes. So that is Shami’s real strength,” Holding said on the ‘Sony Ten Pit Stop’ show aired on channel’s Facebook page as quoted by PTI.
The former Windies pacer added that Shami has both pace and control in his bowling.
“It is important to have pace, but you have got to have control as well and both of these guys (Shami and Jasprit Bumrah) have control. Shami is not very tall, is not extremely quick, but is quick enough. And he has the control and he moves the ball around a bit,” said the Kingston-born legend, who picked 249 wickets from 60 Test matches.
Since making his international debut in 2013, Shami has played 49 Test matches, 77 ODIs and 11 T20Is where he has taken 180, 144 and 12 wickets, respectively.
The right-arm pacer has been one of the key players for India. Having started off under former skipper MS Dhoni, Shami is now the leader of the pack under Virat Kohli.
Shami’s mastery over reverse swing has been one of the big plus points for the Indian team while playing on slow unresponsive pitches. For the pacer, seam and swing are the priorities and if both are right, he focuses on keeping his speed above 140kph.