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Follow Us“Let’s do things differently this time. So differently,” opens Gwen Stacy in the movie, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
The well-woven story might surround Miles Morales, Peter Parker and Miguel O’Hara, three obvious names in the Spider-man multi-verse, but it is Gwen Stacy who weaves the story around.
Mohammed Shami isn’t any different.
In a team that is filled with superstars such as Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja and Ajinkya Rahane, Shami is often the one that misses the limelight. Since making his debut in England in 2014, Shami has seen it all; despair more often than happiness. The 32-year-old would be ardent to turn things around and do it quite differently.
So differently that it helps India to a World Test Championship mace. If you ask Shami, he wouldn’t have wanted to enter such a high-stake fixture differently. The 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) was, if anything, a perfect precursor for the final.
It was batters’ friendly, and by that, we mean extremely batters’ friendly, with the overall runs being scored at nearly 9 runs an over. That only meant the bowlers couldn’t be content with just one good over. They had to keep going at it with sublime precision.
Only three bowlers had a tournament that stood out - Mohammed Siraj, Shami and Matheesha Pathirana.
While Siraj has had his variations and Pathirana his slinging action, Shami has topped the wickets chart based on just pure plain accuracy. Even though it is almost a different sport, the method behind Shami’s madness remained unchanged.
Gujarat Titans’ team director, Vikram Solanki, didn’t alter his words when he said, “I don’t get tired of listening to commentators praise Shami for his seam position.”
A large reason for Shami’s success has been that seam position, which has stood the test of time, irrespective of the country, the pitch, the conditions and the weather. But when you combine all that, England and Dukes only make for a good love story for Shami.
However, the case has been rather different.
Shami’s love-hate relationship with England
Since his first tour to England in 2014, Shami has played 13 matches in the country, of which 12 have come against the Three Lions. In 2014, Shami only managed to pick up five wickets, averaging a high of 73.20 and leaking runs steadily at an economy of 3.81. And in that particular series, India’s pace bowling read something like this: Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shami.
The right-arm seamer failed to make the most of his chances in England, with five wickets, striking twice in Nottingham, once in each innings of the Lord’s Test, and once in Southampton. Barring the second innings at Lord’s, only once in that entire series, Shami had an economy of three.
Fast-forward to the 2018 series, Shami was more than a catalyst for India with the ball. He was always at the English batters, constantly beating the various bat-makers and the labels and only going twice without picking a wicket in an innings. Shami picked up 16 wickets and was India’s second-highest wicket-taker on the tour, but he was hard done.
None in that series had drawn more false shots than Shami (283), with James Anderson (249) and Stuart Broad (229) being only close. Barring Ishant, India had zero bowlers who created those many opportunities in that particular tour, making the Bengal seamer stand out amidst the rest.
Ever since the ball tracking began, no other Indian bowler has managed such a staggering impact over an away tour as Shami had in 2018. Shami was unlucky, for he could have landed more wickets than he did during that tour.
“Some things depend on luck too. When you bowl, your target is to bowl a good line and length. Whether you get a wicket or not depends on luck. Of course, it is frustrating that I beat the bat many times and still didn't get a wicket. But it's okay. Whatever God gives me, I have to accept," Shami said back in 2018.
During the 2021 series against England, there was a discourse that was made famous, a tuff in the commentary box and public too later that Shami wasn’t making his own luck. In more ways than one, the discourse was true. The right-arm pacer wasn’t helping himself with the lengths. The shorter he was, the more unlucky he continued to be, drawing 248 false shots in the series.
“Experience always helps, it doesn’t matter what the result have been, it always helps. You understand how the conditions are, the situations in the match, and the winds and weather as well. So, it always helps if you know the conditions well,” said Shami ahead of the World Test Championship final at The Oval.
Could Shami turn up differently this time around?
The transformation that Shami has gone through over the last two WTC cycles has been nothing short of impressive. While challenges have been thrown at him, he has delivered on more than one occasion barring in England, a country which has stood as his nemesis.
There isn’t England though, this time around against him. There is Australia, a country against whom he has 40 wickets at an average of 31.27. The match is at The Oval, with conditions heavily tilted in favour of pacers this season.
Since the turn of 2022 in first-class cricket, only 20 wickets have fallen to spin at the venue. In comparison, 311 wickets have been taken by pacers, which accounts for 93.9% of the wickets. Well, in short, the conditions can’t get better for Shami, who has turned a consistent page since the start of the WTC.
Since the beginning of the first edition of WTC, the Indian pacer has picked up 81 wickets, the most by an Indian pacer, whilst still averaging 23.8, showing his worth with the ball. Even in the ongoing WTC cycle, only Jasprit Bumrah has picked up more wickets than Shami (41), and there’s a stark difference of ten wickets between him and Siraj, India’s No.2 for this final.
His clash against the Australian batters will be well-awaited.
Shami’s numbers against one of Australia’s best batters, Marnus Labuschagne, is perhaps one to stand out for, with two wickets, and the Australian only averaging 28.5 against him. Travis Head doesn’t average any better, with 27.7 and three dismissals.
Both the Australian openers - David Warner and Usman Khawaja - too have been dismissed four times in between them. Something or the other will happen due to the Dukes ball, but the question remains: can Shami be the one causing damage?
In the absence of Bumrah, the bulk of the responsibility of leading the pace attack falls on the shoulders of Shami. For the longest time, Shami has trodden the path of being in the pack, but this time, he has to lead the pack with all his knowledge of the Dukes' ball.
“With great power comes great responsibility."
