Mohammed Shami


Mohammed Shami Ahmed is an Indian international cricketer who plays for the Indian national cricket team. He is a right-arm fast bowler, who consistently bowls around the mark, and swings and seams ball at that pace which makes him a deceptively potent fast bowler. He is also known as a reverse swing specialist. He made his ODI debut against Pakistan in January 2013 where he bowled a record four maiden overs. He picked a five-wicket haul on his Test debut against West Indies in November 2013. On 23 January 2019 he became the fastest Indian bowler to take 100 ODI wickets. On 22 June 2019, Shami took a hat-trick against Afghanistan in world cup 2019 and India record's 50th World Cup win, and Shami became the fourth Indian cricketer to do so in One Day Cricket after Chetan Sharma, Kapil Dev and Kuldeep Yadav.

Early life and career

Shami is originally from Sahaspur village in Amroha, Uttar Pradesh. His father Tousif Ali was a farmer, who was also a fast bowler in his younger days. Shami has a sister and three brothers, all three of whom wanted to be fast bowlers. In 2005, Tousif recognised Shami's bowling abilities and took him to Badruddin Siddique, a cricket coach in Moradabad which was 22 km from their village.
After Shami missed out on getting picked for the Uttar Pradesh Under-19 team, Badruddin sent him to Kolkata later in 2005. Shami started playing for the Dalhousie Athletic Club. While he was playing for this club, he was noticed by Debabrata Das, a former assistant secretary of the Cricket Association of Bengal, who was impressed with Shami's bowling and drafted him into his team, Town Club, with a contract of Rs 75,000. Das took Shami, who had no place to stay in Kolkata, to his own residence. Shami bowled well for Town Club, but could not get selected for the Bengal Under-22 team. Das went to one of the selectors, Samarban Banerjee, and asked him to watch Shami's bowling. Banerjee was impressed with his bowling and selected him for the Bengal Under-22 team.
In order to get selected for the Bengal team, Das sent Shami to Mohun Bagan Club, which is one of the top clubs in Bengal. After joining the club, Shami could bowl to Sourav Ganguly at the Eden Gardens nets. Ganguly saw Shami's bowling skills and asked the selectors to "take special care of him". Soon after, Shami was picked in the Bengal Ranji squad in 2010.

Domestic career

Shami made his first-class debut in 2010 against Assam, picking up three wickets.
In the aftermath of his good performance in the domestic season, he was selected for the West Indies-bound India A squad in 2012. He shared a match-winning partnership of 73 runs for the 10th wicket with Cheteshwar Pujara during India A's unofficial Test match against the West Indies A in June 2012.
During Ranji Trophy 2012–13, in a match against Hyderabad on a green at Eden Gardens, he took 4/36 and 6/71, and scored 15* from 6 balls in the second innings to help his side win the match by 4 wickets, along with Wriddhiman Saha. He also took 7/79 and 4/72 against Madhya Pradesh at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore, but in spite of that his side lost the match by 138 runs. It included a hat-trick in the first innings to wipe out the tail.

Indian Premier League

Shami made his Indian Premier League debut for Kolkata Knight Riders in 2013. He was signed by Delhi Daredevils for the 2014 season but played only a few matches in that season. He was retained by the franchise in 2015 but did not play a match that season before becoming a regular in the side. In December 2018, he was bought by Kings XI Punjab in the player auction ahead of the 2019 season.

International career

ODI career

As a result of his remarkable performances in domestic matches, Mohammed Shami was selected for India's ODI series against Pakistan, replacing his Bengali teammate Ashok Dinda and subsequently made his debut in the third ODI in Delhi on 6 January 2013. He returned a tidy figure of 1/23 from 9 overs in a low-scoring game that India won by 10 runs.
He was selected for India's Australian tour in October 2013. After sitting on the bench for the first 3 matches, he was given a chance in the fourth match in which he took 3 wickets.
In India's tour of New Zealand in 2014, Shami picked 11 wickets in ODIs at an average of 28.72.
On 5 March 2014, in an Asia cup match against Afghanistan, Shami became the second fastest Indian to take 50 ODI wickets. He ended the tournament with 9 wickets at 23.59.
After losing the Test series by 3–1 against England India won the ODI series by 3–1 in which Shami took 8 wickets at 24.16.
In 5th ODI he bowled a good spell in death overs with tight line and length & Middle stump Yorkers. After that many cricket pundits started calling him the future of Indian bowling.
Shami took 10 wickets at 17.40 against West Indies in October 2014. In the 2nd ODI of the Series he got his best bowling figure in ODIs as he picked up 4 wickets for 36 runs in his 9.3 overs.
He was in the 15 man Squad for 5 Odis against Sri Lanka in November 2014 but he was replaced by Dhawal Kulkarni due to a toe injury he suffered during the West Indies Series.
For his performances in 2014, he was named in the World ODI XI by the ICC.

2015 World Cup

Shami was in the 15-man squad named for the 2015 World Cup and was eventually included in the playing XI. He picked 4 wickets for 35 runs from his 9 overs in India's first match against Pakistan, helping India win the match. In the second against South Africa, he finished with 2/30 from 8 overs. Against West Indies, he was awarded the Man of the Match after finishing with figures 8–2–35–3. He had a good game in the next as well, against Ireland, finishing with 3/41 from 9 overs. In the last of the league games, against Zimbabwe, he took another 3-wicket haul giving away 48 runs from his 9 overs which included two maidens. India went on to win all the league games. In the quarterfinal against Bangladesh, he picked 2 wickets for 37 runs off 8 overs. He had a poor game against Australia in the semifinal, which India lost, where he gave away 68 runs off 10 overs without picking a wicket, thus finishing the tournament with 17 wickets at 17.29 and an economy rate of 4.81. In June, after the conclusion of the tournament, Shami revealed that he bowled through a recurring pain in his left knee. He later underwent a surgery. He was also named in the 'Team of the tournament' by Cricbuzz.
For his performances in 2015, he was named in the World ODI XI by the ICC.

India in New Zealand 2019

In January 2019, during the tour of New Zealand, Shami claimed his 100th ODI wicket in first of the five games bowling Martin Guptill out. He is the fastest Indian to reach the milestone in terms of matches. Playing in four games, he picked a total of nine wickets at 15.33 and was named man of the series.

2019 Cricket World Cup

In April 2019, he was named in India's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup. On 22 June 2019, in the match against Afghanistan, Shami took a hat-trick. He became the second Indian bowler after Chetan Sharma to claim a hat-trick in a World Cup match. He became the ninth player to have achieved a hat-trick in the Cricket World Cup. On 30 June 2019, in the match against England, Shami took his first five-wicket haul in ODIs.

Test career

Shami made his Test debut against West Indies in November 2013 in front of his home crowd at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. There, he took his maiden Test wicket – that of Kieran Powell – finishing with figures of 17–2–71–4 in the first innings of the Test match. In the second innings, his figures were 13.1–0–47–5. He had a dream debut, taking 9 wickets for 118 runs – the most by an Indian pacer on debut – surpassing Munaf Patel's 7 wickets for 97 runs in Mohali in 2006.
He played Tests against South Africa and New Zealand and picked 6 and 10 wickets respectively. He had a poor series at the 2014 tour of England with 5 wickets in 3 matches at an average of 73.20. He was involved in a 111-run partnership for the 10th wicket, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the first Test at Trent Bridge, and scored his maiden half-century in the process, and helped India post 457 in the 1st innings when India were struggling on 346–9. He was a part of 19-member squad for 2014–15 Border Gavaskar Trophy in Australia where he played 3 matches and had a good series picking up 15 wickets at an average of 35.80. he took 100 wickets in 29th Test.

T20I career

Shami made his debut in Twenty20 Internationals on 21 March 2014 against Pakistan in the opening match of the World T20 and took the wicket of Umar Akmal. He was played for only three matches in the tournament and dropped from the rest. He was included in the side in 2014 tour of England, following the Test series, in July. He played in the lone match of the series and finished with 3 wickets conceding 38 runs.

Personal life

On 9 March 2018, a First Information Report was lodged against Shami and his family members by his wife citing domestic violence and adultery. Further, Shami was charged for attempted murder, rape and adultery which was claimed by his wife, Hasin Jahan. Hasin had also levelled allegations of match fixing against the bowler.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India withheld Shami from their national contracts list as a result of the allegations. On 22 March 2018, the BCCI cleared Shami's central contract after its Anti-Corruption Unit cleared him of corruption charges.
On 2 September 2019, the Alipore Court issued an arrest warrant against Mohammed Shami in connection to his domestic violence and physical assault charge levied by his wife Hasin Jahan. He has 15 days as of the issuance of the warrant to surrender. The arrest warrant was stayed by a district court on 10 September 2019 because the court that issued the warrant failed to issue a summons to appear in court after filing the charge sheet, and that an arrest warrant should only be filed after the defendant fails to appear before court after being issued a summons.