Despite dealing with injury issues and personal setbacks, Mohammad Shami has established himself as one of India’s leading pacers over the years.

However, 2018 was a difficult year for the veteran fast bowler as he was struggling with fitness and had a legal battle with his estranged wife Hasin Jahan.

In fact, Shami failed the fitness test ahead of the 2018 tour of England and he was eventually dropped from the Indian team.

Speaking to Cricbuzz, Bharat Arun revealed that Shami was contemplating retirement five years ago but a meeting with then head coach Ravi Shastri made him rethink his decision.

“Just before the 2018 tour of England, we had a fitness test and Shami had failed it. He lost his place in the Indian team. He called me and said he wanted to have a word with me. So I invited him to my room; he was going through a personal turmoil. His fitness was affected, mentally he was gone. He came to me and said ‘I am very angry and I want to quit cricket’,” Arun stated.

“I immediately took Shami to meet Ravi Shastri. We both went up to his room and I said ‘Ravi, Shami wants to say something’. Ravi asked what it was and Shami told him the same thing that ‘I don’t want to play cricket’. Both of us asked ‘What will you do if not play cricket?’ What else do you know? You know how to bowl when given the ball,” he added.

“So Ravi said ‘It’s good that you’re angry. This is the best thing that has happened to you because you have a ball in hand. Your fitness is poor. Whatever anger it is that you have, take it out on your body. We are going to send you to National Cricket Academy and want you to go there for 4 weeks and stay there. You will not go home, and only head to NCA. It suited Shami also because he had a problem going to Kolkata then so he spent 5 weeks at the NCA,” he further said.

As it turned out, Shami regained fitness ahead of the Test series in England and was recalled back into the side. The right-arm pacer featured in all five Tests and claimed 16 wickets.

So far, Shami has played 61 Tests, 87 ODIs and 23 T20Is for India, picking a total of 402 scalps across formats.