India vs West Indies, first Test: Mohammed Shami makes his own luck

His wicket came at a decisive juncture, just about when it seemed the Indians were getting a little fidgety and fatigued, desperately waiting for the lunch break to freshen the mind and body. The wicket suddenly soared their spirits, the old intensity was back and Shami began bustling away, working up pace, spewing aggression and most importantly hitting the right lengths, like an express train searing away to compensate for the lost time.

Compensating for lost time

Shami, indeed, was running to compensate for lost time, one-and-a-half glorious years he had lost to injury. As unfortunate as it came, and as several fast bowlers of the past would vouch from experience, he was injured just at the moment he seemed to be stepping up from the in-between slump and evolving into a trustworthy, measured, in-control fast bowler.

First his knees and then his hamstring caved in. His life was topsy-turvy. Wisely, he didn’t hasten his comeback, had a lengthy rehab at the National Cricket Academy, steadily working on regaining his full fitness and incrementally plotting his way back into the game. He was in World T20 squad but didn’t play a single match. But it reacquainted him with the dressing room, and fed him the belief that he’s still wanted and prominent in the scheme of the team.
Then came the IPL, his first exposure to serious cricket in a long time. He didn’t straightaway hit the strides. He was still rusty and loose, his pace middling and accuracy fluctuating, still feeling his way back into international cricket.
Eight matches fetched him only five wickets and an unflattering economy rate of 9.69. But more importantly, he spent considerable time with Zaheer Khan, who himself had endured, fought and bounced back from several career-stalling injuries.

And when the squad was picked for the West Indies tour, Shami was promptly recalled. There was nothing much of a surprise as he has been India’s most improved bowler until he got injured.

He was an automatic pick, and Virat Kohli explained the rationale. “He was unfortunately injured while he was having a great season. He bowled really well in South Africa, bowled well in New Zealand and England. In short, he bowled well everywhere, in the Test matches as well as the World Cup. Unfortunately, he got injured after that and had a massive break but now he is back and is bowling very well. He is a gun bowler, the areas he hits and the attacking lengths are what you need in Test cricket. He has the ability to get batsmen out at any stage of the game which is very pleasing in Test cricket and important for a captain. So Shami being back in the side obviously gives us a lot of options. The guy can bowl with the new and old ball, reverse swing, he can come round the wicket, use bouncers and use his pace well. I think as a fast bowler he is a complete package,” he said.

Two fiery spells

Shami would have been pleased to here some of those words the captain used — words like “gun bowler” and “complete package”. In two fiery spells, on either side of the lunch break, he showed why his skipper rates him so highly. In the last over before lunch, he duped Darren Bravo with his bounce. Bravo is generally comfortable against bounce. But here Shami took him by surprise, as he managed to extract more bounce than his colleagues.
While his line was unrelentingly outside the stuff, Shami altered his lengths to suit the pitch. Bowling fuller, unless the ball was either new or abraded, would have been futile. So the wiser ploy was to bowl back-of-length, making the ball move both ways. He interspersed it with sharp bouncers.

Like most shrewd fast bowlers, he sensed the weaknesses of the batsman. Hence, to Marlon Samuels, who has the habit of pushing at the ball outside the off-stump without any appreciable stride forward. He pushed his length up a bit, inviting him to drive or uncertainly hang his bat. He was sucked into the trap in his third over after lunch. He resumed his back-of-length trajectory thereafter, and in the space of two balls nipped out Jermaine Blackwood.
The underlying theme of the day would be something like this — on a day the Indians were horribly out of luck, Shami made his own luck.