New Delhi, (Samajweekly) Indian fast bowler Mohammed Shami is leaving no stone unturned in his bid to be in shape during this period away from cricket because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Shami was back in the nets recently, albeit not within the setup of the national team. Shami had tweeted a video of him bowling in his hometown in Uttar Pradesh.
On Sunday, the pacer posted another video of his workout at the gym on Twitter. “Word hard,” Shami said along with the video.
He had earlier said that it will take at least a month to get used to not applying saliva at all on the ball. The usage of saliva for shining the ball has been banned by the International Cricket Council (ICC) temporarily so as to ensure the safe resumption of cricket amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“Using saliva is a habit now. Replacing it with an external substance like wax or Vaseline is going to be difficult. We’ll need to assess how well the external substance works and will need at least a month to get used to it. Otherwise it’s a guaranteed fine on us bowlers,” Shami told ESPNcricinfo.
Shami is part of a fast bowling attack that is considered among the best in contemporary Test cricket. It includes Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Commenting on who bowls with the new ball, Shami says, it’s often a difficult choice, especially when the first-choice trio of himself, Ishant and Bumrah play together.
“We surround Virat Kohli and ask him to make the decision,” Shami said. “But he normally says, ‘don’t get me involved in all this; you decide among yourselves, I don’t have an issue.’ That is the kind of fun we have in our team meetings. I let the other two start. I have no objection to bowling with a semi-new ball.”
