Mohammed Shami was in great form upon his ODI return, taking three wickets to help dismantle the England batting lineup at The Oval.
Mohammed Shami, playing his first ODI match since November 2020, helped rip through the England batting lineup at the Kennington Oval, finishing with figures of 3/31. After India won the match in convincing fashion, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) shared a video of Shami having a chat with India bowling coach, Paras Mhambrey. During the interaction, Mhambrey asked him “Obviously you are playing ODIs after a bit of a break, so did you think anything and go? Were you following the same processes or did you do anything different?” Shami, before answering his question, made a funny comment to make first.
“Thoda break nahi tha, 3 saal ka break tha (It wasn’t a small break, it was for three years),” he said with a chuckle.
He then went on to say “Nothing was going on in my head regarding the gap. I’ve become very comfortable with the team. We travel together and have been playing together for like a decade now.”
“It’s extremely important to come with a clear mind as you already know what you need to do, where you need to pitch the ball, the variations in white-ball and everyone knows these basics,” Shami said.
Shami and Jasprit Bumrah – who registered career-best figures of 6/19 – helped India bowl England out for 110, setting up a thumping win in the series opener.
In the process, Shami became the fastest Indian to take 150 wickets in ODIs.
Openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan stayed unbeaten as India won by 10 wickets inside 19 overs.
Rohit smashed 76* off 58 deliveries while Dhawan made 31.
