Mohammed Shami reveals the secret for success in Antigua Test

India is dominating the first Test match after getting the host all out for 243 in the first innings with Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav bagging 4 wickets each. Earlier, India declared on 566/8, courtesy Virat Kohli’s maiden 200, and enforced a follow-on, on the home side.

Shami who is making his comeback after 18 months, impressed from the offset, as he ran through the Windies middle-order. Shami said that batting on the wicket made it easy to understand that the wicket is slow and so, it was important to bowl consistently. “We had batted on this wicket and knew that it was a slow wicket. The plan was to bowl at a consistent spot for long periods of time and that is why we were successful,” Shami told bcci.tv.

The 26-year old revealed that the plan was to surprise the batsmen with the short ball as they don’t expect it on a slow wicket. “On slow wickets, the batsmen don’t expect the short ball. So, that was our plan to bowl the short delivery as it would fetch us wickets,” he said.

Records tumble on his comeback:

Shami also became the joint fastest Indian pacer to claim 50 Test wickets. He reached the landmark in his 13th Test match, has emulated Venkatesh Prasad’s feat.

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“It has almost been 18 months since I last played a Test. I got injured in Australia and underwent a surgery. My wife helped me a lot through the period as I was bed-ridden for two months. In the same time, our baby (daughter) was born and that calmed me down as I was upset at getting injured since I was bowling really well. The birth of my baby helped me take the focus away from the game and I could re-energize myself,” Shami described.

He said that he was able to carry on from where he had left 18 months back after really working hard on his fitness. “Also in the same period, I had put on about 15 kg. I resumed my training and worked really hard in the NCA and then during the preparation camp. I felt that today I could carry on from where I had left. I didn’t feel like there was any extra load. Today, I felt I bowled the same manner that I used to,” he signed-off.