IND vs AUS: Senior India wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik has called Indian pacer Mohammed Shami ‘Torture’ and ‘unplayable’. “If I have to use one word for Shami it will be ‘Torture Shami’. Because in my whole career, he is the toughest bowler I have faced in the nets, he has got me out a couple of times as well in the match. But he has been nasty to play in the nets. I thought I was the only one so then I asked Kohli, Rohit, and they are all legends of the game and they all said they hate playing Shami,” Karthik said in conversation with Cricbuzz on ‘Rise of New India’ show.
India defeated Australia by an innings and 132 runs inside three days of the first test on Saturday. Ravichandran Ashwin took 5-37 in 12 overs as Australia was dismissed before tea in its second innings for 91, its lowest total in India.
Explaining further on Shami’s upright seam position, Karthik said, “What makes him so special is – all of his strength come into play in net session, his upright seam position, his natural length, that nasty length of 6-8 metre mark, where the two major mode of dismissals are caught behind or caught at slip. And you can see why he has been unlucky over a period of time as well because that length says that he gets the batsman beaten numerous times but never gets that wicket. He has travelled overseas in series where he constantly ended up being the bad bowler because he is the bowler got gets most deliveries beaten, but never the amount of wickets to show for,” he explained.
On Day 3, Shami dismantled Nathan Lyon’s stumps for 8 runs as Australia were left struggling at 88/9, trailing by 135 runs. The Aussies were just one wicket away from a loss. Then Shami hit Australia with one final blow, dismissing Scott Boland for a duck. Australia was all out for just 91 runs in 32.3 overs. They lost the match by innings and 132 runs. Shami got figures of 2/13.