KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja's grit with the bat may have taken away all the headlines after the first ODI at Wankhede Stadium, but Mohammed Shami's second spell deserves an equal level of appreciation from all quarters. Shami explained that since the Aussie batters were batting on the back foot, his plan was to pitch the ball a little further, with a slip in place.
"It felt alright right from the first ball of the second spell. The ball was coming off nicely from the point of release. We talk about the seam position or off the deck, but the focus was to keep the ball in good areas because they were playing on the back foot. My mindset was to pitch the ball a little further with a slip in place, as I had done in the first spell.," Shami said post the game.
Talking about Rahul's performance, Shami said it was nice to see the under fire batter bat in a pressure situation and come out on top. "He has played so many good innings in the past. It happens sometimes that luck does not favour you, or things are not working out well if you are trying to do something. The pressure (on Rahul) was certainly there, we had lost so many wickets in quick succession but the way he rebuilt, it was very nice to see that one of our players has made runs in a pressure situation," Shami added.
Shami further talked about his bowling partnership with Mohammed Siraj, and said that it is unfortunate to not have Bumrah, but reckoned that the team had a great bowling unit and praised Siraj for his confidence.
"It has been a long time since Bumrah has not been playing. It is our hard luck that he is not there. But we have a very good overall bowling unit for both white and red balls. We support each other a great deal. Siraj has been playing for a while, he has the confidence. It is important to see how well the other bowler is doing when bowling in partnerships. We try to bowl as tight as possible, keeping the ball in specific patches.
As a senior bowler you have to lead the way," he added.
Shami said it is important for players to be smart about their workload management with two big events, the ICC World Test Championship final and the World Cup lined up. "There is a lot of time left for the WTC final and World Cup. As a player, you cannot think that far ahead. You never know what will happen tomorrow. But you have to be smart as far as workload is concerned, you have to work on your strengths. You know your workload as per international cricket. It is better to take it series by series or match by match," he said.
Mohammed Shami ended the match with 6 overs under his belt. He scalped 3 wickets and gave away just 17 runs.
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