India batter Dinesh Karthik dubbed Mohammad Shami as ‘torture Shami’ and said that even the likes of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli hate facing him in the nets. He dubbed the Bengal pacer as unplayable in nets and someone who bowls with a lot of intensity in practice as well.
India defeated Australia by an innings and 132 runs within three days of the first test on Saturday. Ravichandran Ashwin took 5-37 in 12 overs as Australia was dismissed before tea in its second innings for 91, its lowest total in India.
Mohammad Shami picked three wickets in the match, one in first innings, clean bowling David Warner with a beauty, and then two wickets in the second innings, wrapping the Australian innings in a jiffy.
“If I have to use one word for Shami it will be ‘Torture Shami’. Because in my whole career, he is the toughest bowler I have faced in the nets, he has got me out a couple of times as well in the match. But he has been nasty to play in the nets. I thought I was the only one so then I asked Kohli, Rohit, and they are all legends of the game and they all said they hate playing Shami,” Karthik said in a conversation with Cricbuzz on ‘Rise of New India’ show.
Ravindra Jadeja took 5/47 in 1st innings and Ravichandran Ashwin took 5/37 in the second innings.
Dinesh Karthik Reveals What Makes Him Mohammad Shami So Special
Mohammad Shami has been one of the best bowlers in the world with 219 wickets in 61 Test matches, 159 wickets in 87 ODIs and 24 scalps in 23 T20Is. He has a total of 332 wickets in 85 FC matches.
Shami has been the strike bowler for India alongside Jasprit Bumrah and was recalled into the T20 side last year for the T20 World Cup in absence of Bumrah due to injury. Here as well, he is the lead fast bowler for India as Jasprit Bumrah is yet to regain his fitness after a back injury.
Explaining further on Shami’s upright seam position, Karthik said, “What makes him so special is – all of his strength come into play in net session, his upright seam position, his natural length, that nasty length of 6-8 metre mark, where the two major mode of dismissals are caught behind or caught at slip. And you can see why he has been unlucky over a period of time as well because that length says that he gets the batsman beaten numerous times but never gets that wicket. He has travelled overseas in series where he constantly ended up being the bad bowler because he is the bowler got gets most deliveries beaten, but never the amount of wickets to show for.”
The second Test between India and Australia will be played in Delhi from February 17 onwards.