You could just see in his eyes… ever since Indian pacer Mohammed Shami regained full fitness, it seems, he has had a point to prove. To the selectors, to his fans, and even IPL franchises, that is fully fit, and most importantly, in red-hot form. Maybe, when he was not retained by SRH, he felt the pinch.. so he chose the LSG vs SRH match to just tell his former team, he still means business.
Shami proves a point again
On Sunday, in the encounter, Shami completed his quota by the 10th over of the opposition innings, returning with figures of 2/9 in 4 overs. Apart from getting the wickets of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, what he managed to do was, get 18 dots against, perhaps the two most explosive openers in the IPL currently.
There could also be a hidden message to selectors here, that he has the hunger to perform for the Indian team, with his last appearance coming a year back at the Champions Trophy, in March 2025. And this is not a standalone performance for sure. In the last match, he had returned with figures of 1/28.
SRH wrong in releasing him
Whether or not he deserves to be in the Indian team is a separate issue, but one feels, he should not have been released by SRH. Now, the team perhaps has one of the worst bowling attacks in the entire tournament. This only propelled Yuvraj Singh to call out their deficiency. He had went on to claim that SRH won’t win the IPL, on account of poor bowling.
Barring his last season in IPL, he has been largely good. In the 2023 season, he went on to pick 28 wickets in 17 matches, and the year prior to that, he had 20 wickets to his name. In 2021 it was 19, and in 2020, it was 20. If one must take the liberty, he might just have taught Hyderabad a sound lesson that despite a poor season, quality bowlers like him must be retained.
