To say that Mohammed Shami was unlucky on the 2018 tour of England would be like saying Mohammed Shami loves biryani. Stating the obvious.
According to Ben Jones of CricViz, on that tour, “26 per cent of Shami’s deliveries brought an edge or a miss. Only 55 per cent of the chances created from Shami’s bowling were taken, and he had five catches dropped off his bowling.” He took 16 wickets in the five-match series at an average of 38.87 and a strike rate of 64.7.
Dinesh Karthik brought this up during commentary and was promptly presented with an interesting data point. During that tour, which India lost 1-4, Shami induced 272 false shots, compared with 206 for Ishant Sharma and 192 for Jasprit Bumrah. While Ishant ended that series with 18 wickets at an average of 24.27, Bumrah got 14 at an average of 25.92 (he played only three games).
But on June 22, 2021, as he stood manning the boundary wrapped in a towel to keep warm, Shami would have been thanking Lady Luck for finally smiling at him. He had bowled superbly once again, but this time the wickets column reflected his performance. He had just rattled the stumps that B.J. Watling was protecting in his last Test for New Zealand.
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The previous day of play, as New Zealand posted 102 for the loss of two wickets, Shami had once again been the most threatening. He had created chances, including a couple of false shots that did not go to hand, but remained wicket-less.
Day five started off tamely, with the Indian bowlers creating pressure with good bowling, but not being rewarded early. Compared with the Kiwis, the Indian were not getting more swing and were generally shorter. According to cricket.com, only Shami was fuller on day five; Bumrah almost halved his percentage of full balls and Ishant, too, kept it relatively far from the stumps.
Eventually, Shami drew Ross Taylor into a drive and Shubman Gill took an excellent catch to dismiss him. And, lo and behold, Shami was on his way. He had bustled in without showing any signs of exhaustion; captain Virat Kohli had held back his spinners, which meant the fast bowlers had to keep going. It turned out to be a good ploy, in addition to his tactic of rotating his men at key moments.
Shami got some seam movement and, as Ian Bishop pointed out, used the crease to his advantage. To set up Colin de Grandhomme, he went closer to the stumps for two deliveries, taking the ball away from him, before going wide and angling one in. He trapped the batsman LBW.
But Shami mixed it up, too. As the tall Kyle Jamieson started breaking the shackles with fearless drives, Shami went short to him. After being hit for a six, he bowled a bouncer to the six-foot-eight Jamieson (imagine the effort put into that ball), who hooked it right into Bumrah’s hands on the long-leg boundary.
Shami had found more help with the second new ball, and finished the innings with four wickets.
With the match poised for a nail-biting finish, despite its truncated nature, Shami would hope that there would be more luck to follow for him and his teammates. If it does, the biryani waiting back home would taste a lot better.
