Star Player Mohammed Shami Almost Quit Cricket Before India’s Victory. Here’s Why

The Indian cricket team registered a 70-run victory over New Zealand in the semi-final of ICC World Cup 2023 on Wednesday. Mohammed Shami emerged as the star of the win and recorded the best-ever wicket haul by an Indian bowler in World Cup history. He took seven wickets and powered India to the finals. Amid this, old remarks by the bowler on quitting cricket have resurfaced on the internet. The 33-year-old bowler wanted to leave the sport in 2018 before India’s tour of England, as per bowling coach Bharat Arun.

Mr Arun said that Shami was going through a tough phase in his career, struggling with injuries and personal life. Thus, he was “mentally” affected. “Just before the 2018 tour of England, we had a fitness test and Shami had failed it. He lost his place in the Indian team. He called me and said he wanted to have a word with me. So I invited him to my room; he was going through a personal turmoil. His fitness was affected, mentally he was gone. He came to me and said ‘I am very angry and I want to quit cricket’. I immediately took Shami to meet Ravi Shastri,” he told Cricbuzz. 

He continued, “We both went up to his room and I said ‘Ravi, Shami wants to say something’. Ravi asked what it was and Shami told him the same thing that ‘I don’t want to play cricket’. Both of us asked ‘What will you do if not play cricket?’ What else do you know? You know how to bowl when given the ball,” the coach added.

The two then decided to send Shami to the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, which improved his fitness. Mr Arun added, “So Ravi said ‘It’s good that you’re angry. This is the best thing that has happened to you because you have a ball in hand. Your fitness is poor. Whatever anger it is that you have, take it out on your body. We are going to send you to National Cricket Academy and want you to go there for 4 weeks and stay there. You will not go home, and only head to NCA.”

According to him, the situation worked in favour of the bowler “because he had a problem going to Kolkata”. He spent five weeks in Bengaluru and worked on his body. “I still remember the call he made and told me ‘Sir, I have become like a stallion. Make me run as much as you want’. The 5 weeks that he spent there, he realised what working on fitness can do to him,” Mr Arun told the outlet. 

Meanwhile, in the semi-final, Shami took seven wickets for 57 runs off 9.5 overs at an economy rate of 5.79. His bowling figures are also the fifth-best in World Cup history, with Australia’s Glenn McGrath’s 7/15 against Namibia in 2003 being the best. The pace veteran also completed 50 World Cup wickets, becoming only the seventh bowler to do so. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)