Shami has ruffled feathers of the Pakistan cricket fraternity by responding to Inzamam’s bizarre claims.
During the recently held T20 World Cup in the West Indies and USA, Inzamam had claimed that Indian bowlers might be tampering with the ball.
The reason behind his doubt was left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh generating a reverse-swing in the 15th over of Australia's innings during the Super 8 fixture in St Lucia.
Speaking on Shubhankar Mishra's YouTube podcast, Shami reacted to these accusations with a blunt critique, calling such claims "cartoonish" and accusing Inzamam of attempting to deceive the public.
After Shami’s comments went viral on social media, former Pakistani opener Salman Butt lashed out at the Indian fast bowler for taking potshots at Inzamam.
Sharing his views on YouTube, Butt said that Shami targeted Inzamam with 'below the belt' remark.
"Mohammad Shami's comments targeted Inzamam-ul-Haq. He targeted Inzamam by speaking about Pakistan picking their team based on personal relations, and I think this is wrong. This is wrong because if you look at Imam's record, he came into the Pakistan team on the basis of his performance. He was also dropped when he failed. Shami's remarks were below the belt and he shouldn't have said such things," Butt said.
Notably, Inzamam had questioned Arshdeep’s ability to reverse the ball in the 15th over against Australia and asked the umpires to keep their eyes open to spot these things.
"Arshdeep Singh, when he was bowling the 15th over, the ball was reversing. Is it too early (for reverse swing) with the new ball? This means the ball was ready for reverse swing by the 12th or the 13th over. Umpires should keep their eyes open (to spot) these things...If it was Pakistani bowlers (reverse swinging the ball) this would have been a big issue. We know reverse swing very well and if Arshdeep can come in the 15th over and start reversing the ball, it means some serious work had been done before," Inzamam had said on Pakistani news channel.
Ahead of the tournament final, India skipper Rohit Sharma had responded to a reporter's question about Inzamam's accusations, saying: "What should I say now about this? You are playing in such hot sun, the wicket is so dry, the ball reverses automatically. It's happening for all the teams, not only ours. All the teams are reverse-swinging. Sometimes, it's important to open your mind.”
Speaking further on this matter, Butt stated: “Yes, there was a controversy, which should've been avoided. A lot of people made statements, Inzamam also said something, Rohit Sharma also clarified, and the topic was over. But to say things about selecting players just because they are relatives is a dirty hit. Such things don't suit Mohammad Shami. He is a renowned bowler, like how Inzamam was a renowned captain.”