Mohammad Shami is one of the best fast bowlers India has produced and R Sridhar revealed that the pacer sometimes needed the motivation to perform at his optimum level.
Sridhar recounted an incident from the 2018 India tour of South Africa where India lost a tightly fought three-Test series 2-1 but changed the perception of them being poor travelers. India had gone into the series with three very good pacers in Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammad Shami and Jasprit Bumrah made his Test debut against the Proteas.
South Africa had won the first two Tests and the third one in Johannesburg was being fought on a tough pitch with uneven bounce.
While Bhuvneshwar won the player of the match for his all-round performance, it was Shami, who had been belted around the park in the first innings, whose five wickets took India to victory in the South African second innings.
"We lost Cape Town. We couldn't chase down 208 which was ridiculous. Then we lost Centurion, another match we should have won, and where we could have been 2-0 up or at worse 1-1. We had already surrendered the series when we went to Johannesburg," Sridhar says in his book 'Coaching Beyond: My Days with the Indian Cricket Team'.
He added: "We did the unthinkable by choosing to bat because we felt the conditions would only get worse for batting as the game went on. Shami didn't turn up in the first innings - he went for 46 runs from 12 overs, and on the fourth day, he was again reasonably inconspicuous till tea, by which time South Africa appeared on course for victory. Needing 241, they had reached 136/3 when the lads trooped in for tea break.”
Chasing a target of 241, South Africa was 136/3 with a 119-run stand between Dean Elgar and Hashim Amla having just been broken and Bumrah got AB de Villiers out for a single-digit score. But Sridhar recalls Shami seeming disinterested when the team came in for the break.
"Shami looked disinterested as he came back in, and as he did for lunch when he had piled up his plate with rice and mutton curry. During the first interval, Ravi lashed out at Shami after taking a glance at the bowler's plate. "Bloody hell, will you satiate your hunger here itself or will you save some of it for wickets too?
Shami drawled, "Haan, haan, yahan bhi kha lunga, udhar bhi kha lunga (Yes, yes, I will ear here and I will eat there too)," Sridhar wrote.
"We all shared Ravi's frustrations because this was a series that ought to have played out differently. It looked as though for all our toils, we would have nothing to show. Just before Shami left the dressing room to return for the post-Tea session, Ravi took him aside and would him up. Not by telling him he was a match-winner and stuff like that, but by reminding him of the lunch-time conversation and Shami's promise," added Sridhar.
Meanwhile, when the play resumed, Shami bowled a terrific spell where he was unplayable, picking 5/28 as South Africa was bowled out for 177. After the match, Shami told the coaching staff to make him angry to get him motivated to perform at an optimal level.
"Post-tea, he was unplayable. He blasted through the middle and lower order to finish with five for 28, and we ended up winning by a comfortable 63-run margin. As he sauntered back into the changing room, he grinned wickedly. 'Haan, mereko aur gussa dilao aap log. Merko gaali do. Utna gussa nahi dilate jitna dilaana chahiye. (Yes, please make me angry. You people should curse me. You don't make me as angry as you should)," Sridhar concluded.
(Hindustan Times inputs)
