Glenn Maxwell, fresh of his scintillating unbeaten double ton in the ongoing ICC World Cup 2023, showered rich praise on Indian pacer Mohammad Shami for his performances in the tournament.
Shami was on the bench for the first four matches of the tournament as India preferred Hardik Pandya along with 5 bowlers in the combination. But once Hardik Pandya got injured and was ruled out of the tournament, Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid decided to bank on Shami and he didn’t disappoint.
He took a fifer against New Zealand in his first match and followed it up with a four-wickets haul against England. He then helped India rout Sri Lanka for 55 runs by picking 5/18 and then took 2 wickets against South Africa.
In all he has 16 wickets in 4 matches for India and his bowling has only made India a more dangerous team.
While speaking on the podcast Club Prairie Fire, Maxwell praised Shami for his upright seam position.
He said: “Mohammad Shami’s seam is the straightest thing in the world. The carpenter’s would love to get a straight angle.”
Former England captain Michael Vaughan, another guest of the show asked Maxwell, about how a team should plan and nullify the Indian bowling attack.
Maxwell replied: “You try play a couple of reverse lap early on. I think one of the key things we have found against India is that if you can get the ball scuffed early enough, play a few shots even if it is swinging, just take them on try and get some sort of edge into the cricket ball.
If you can get them to stop swinging and make them go to spin, you can put them under some kind of pressure. I think we have found that team’s who have gone defensively against them in the powerplay, then you are just a sitting duck. You are basically going to bring them back in the game.
Shami is too good with the new ball. We know how good Bumrah is and Siraj is a wicket taker so he might be the guy, one can try and taken on. But his late outswing is so difficult to face.”
(Indian Express inputs)
