Admitting the brilliance of India’s batting great Chesteshwar Pujara, country’s fast bowler Mohammed Shami on Tuesday said that the right-handed batsman plays him the best during the net sessions.
Shami said this during a live session on Instagram with Bengal cricketer Manoj Tiwary. As the coronavirus outbreak is keeping everyone indoors, sportspersons have been taking to social media to interact with each other as well as fans.
“Cheteshwar Pujara plays me the best during net sessions, he is a very dedicated player, and he hates getting dismissed during net sessions, whenever he is batting, the bowler gets the idea about how much you are drifting away from the off stump,” said Shami as quoted by IANS.
Since making his international debut in 2013, the Uttar Pradesh born pacer Shami has played 49 Test matches, 77 ODIs and 11 T20Is where he has taken 180, 144 and 12 wickets, respectively.
In the same session, Shami revealed that Pakistan legend Wasim Akram and former India pacer Zaheer Khan played a huge role in shaping his career and making him one of India’s mainstay bowler of recent times.
Notably, the speedster, who is just the second Indian to take a World Cup hat-trick, has been one of the key players for India. Having started off under former skipper Mahendra Singh 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 him, seam and swing are the priorities. And if both are right, he focuses on keeping his speed above 140kph.