Mandhana recalled the story from her rehabilitation days at NCA.
India women's cricketer Smriti Mandhana recalled the incident when Mohammad Shami injured her, leaving her with a mark for 10 days. She was facing India's men pacers in nets during her rehab days in NCA.
The batter fractured her right toe during the home series against South Africa last year and was on rehab for a while. She spoke about the ball which hit her in the thigh during a live chat show with Rohit Sharma and her teammate Jemimah Rodrigues.
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“I remember playing Shami bhaiyya (Mohammed Shami) when his doing his rehab. He was bowling at a 120 waala pace (mph) to me and promised that he wouldn’t bowl on my body,” Mandhana said in the video shared by Baseline Ventures on YouTube.
“I was beaten for the first two balls as I was not used to the pace. On the third ball, his in-dipper hit me on my inner thigh and it turned black, blue, and green and was swollen for 10 days,” she added.
Rohit went on to call Shami the trickiest bowler he had to face in the nets. “The pitches we have for net sessions are almost always green with moisture. And whenever Shami sees a green pitch, he eats extra biryani! Bumrah is also difficult but he has been around only for two-three years.”
“Shami, I have been playing since 2013. But yeah, right now there must be a competition going on between Bumrah and Shami, on who beats the bat most, who can hit the most on the helmets,” Rohit added.