India suffered a thumping 8-wicket loss against New Zealand at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, with Rachin Ravindra and Will Young leading the charge for the Kiwis. However, soon after the defeat, an exhilarating visual emerged for Indian fans as pacer Mohammed Shami was finally seen in action at the nets in Bengaluru.
In the videos that surfaced on social media, Shami, wearing a black t-shirt and shorts, can be seen bowling round the wicket to Indian assistant coach Abhishek Nayar. The Indian pacer appeared to be bowling at his best, even shocking the left-handed Nayar with many of his bouncing deliveries. Despite coming in with a heavily strapped left knee, Shami bowled for over an hour without any signs of discomfort.
Apart from Nayar, Shami also bowled to Shubman Gill while bowling coach Morne Morkel looked over him closely. The Indian pacer suffered an ankle injury during last year’s ODI World Cup and hasn’t played cricket since then.
While there have been murmurs about Shami retaining full fitness for a while now, the veteran pacer wasn’t found to be fully fit until the New Zealand series. Shami’s next goal would definitely be to fit in time for the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia, starting next month.
Rohit Sharma on Shami’s fitness:
Ahead of the start of New Zealand series, Rohit had said at a press conference, “To be honest, it is difficult to make a call on him for the Australia series. He had a setback with swelling in his knees, which delayed his recovery. He is currently at the NCA with doctors and physios. We don’t want to bring an undercooked Shami to Australia. We are keeping our fingers crossed.”
“He was in the process of getting fit, getting close to 100 per cent, he had swelling in his knee, that put him back a little bit in his recovery. So, he had to start again. Right now, he’s at NCA, he’s working with the physios and the doctors at NCA,” the Indian captain had added
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