I wanted Cook to keep playing away from his body: Mohammad Shami

Mohammad Shami has revealed the plans he used to dismiss the England batsmen Alastair Cook and Joe Root. In spite of the fact that Shami has been plagued with injuries in recent times, it seems quite clear that the 26-year old Indian pacer is slowly nearing his best. The Bengal speedster impressed in the second Test match as he claimed the important wickets of Joe Root and Alastair Cook in the second innings, something that propelled India to a win.

Shami breached the defenses of Alastair Cook in the first innings after he had set up the latter to play away from his body before swinging one back the other way. The 26-year old added that he wanted Cook to preferably play away from the body.

He elaborated, “I wanted Cook to keep playing away from his body. I kept swinging the ball away consistently and got one to nip back in to take him by surprise. I bowled two deliveries away from him and the moment I got the next one to come back into him, there was a slight gap between his bat and pad and it got him bowled.”

Shami noted, “I was using the crease well and bowling short deliveries to good effect. We knew Root was one batsman who could stick around for a long time if given a chance. I wanted to bluff him by showing the field for a bouncer but bowl a bit up to him and make him play a drive.

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Shami also stated that it did not matter if Joe Root got a few boundaries whilst batting. “Never mind if I got hit for a few boundaries, but executing that plan was important. For Adil Rashid, I was using more cross-seam deliveries and it got a good carry after the bounce. He edged one to hand Wriddhiman Saha, an easy catch.”

Shami enthused, “It is good to have a bowler like Umesh bowling from the other side who can bowl consistently at speeds of 140 (KPH) plus. Watching him bowl at that pace, you realize what is happening off the wicket and you look to implement the same or do better while bowling.

Finally, Mohammad Shami went on to state, “When you see your fellow pacer bowling at the same pace, you can only take a few pointers from it and look to implement what you have noticed. The more your wavelengths match with your fellow pacer, the better it is.”

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