During the recently held T20 World Cup in the West Indies and USA, former Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq stirred a controversy by claiming 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.
Nearly a month later, India’s star pacer Mohammad Shami has lashed out at Inzamam for his ball-tampering accusations.
Shami also rubbished the bizarre allegations made by former Pakistan players during the 2023 World Cup. It was claimed that the Indian fast bowlers were getting “different and suspicious balls” in the showpiece tournament.
"Pakistanis were never happy with us and will never be - someone said we are being given a different ball, someone said there is a chip in the ball. I have previously mentioned that if I ever get an opportunity or a platform in the future, I would definitely like to open the ball and show whether there is any device inside or not. If your bowlers do swing & reverse swing then it is skill, if we do then, we are tampering with ball & chip on the ball," Shami said on Shubhankar Mishra's YouTube podcast.
In response to Inzamam's allegations, Shami said: "Jo unke against perform karegi team wo wahan par target hoti hain. Manlo maine device se ball daal diya aur button ulta dab gaya. Maine inswing daal but outswing ho gayi toh chauka ho jayega. Ye cartoon giri kahin aur chal sakti hai, yeh public ko bewakoof banane wali baate hain” which translates into, “The team that performs against them gets targeted there. Suppose I bowled with the device and pressed the button incorrectly. I intended to bowl an inswinger but it turned into an outswinger, resulting in a boundary. This kind of cartoonish behavior can happen elsewhere; these are just ways to fool the public).”
Notably, Inzamam has questioned how Arshdeep managed 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.
India defeated Australia by 24 runs in that game and then registered victories against England and South Africa in the semi-final and final respectively to clinch the T20 World Cup 2024 title.
Ahead of the title clash, 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.”
