When Mohammed Siraj burst onto the scene with his lethal fast bowling, veteran Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin initially thought that the star pacer would become the ‘junior Shami’. However, Ashwin now believes that there is someone else at Team India, who has the potential to become the next heir of India’s all-time leading wicket-taker at the ICC World Cup – Mohammed Shami.
Four days after contesting the ICC World Cup 2023 final, India and Australia resumed their white-ball rivalry in the first T20I of the five-match series in Visakhapatnam on Thursday. With Indian think tank resting pace spearheads Jasprit Bumrah, Siraj and Shami for the Australia T20Is, India’s fast-bowling attack features the likes of Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna and newcomer Mukesh Kumar.
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‘Mukesh could be Shami junior’
Ashwin, who recently reviewed the World Cup final on his YouTube channel, has shared a lesser-known story about the rise of pacer Mukesh. Lauding the pacer’s performances against the West Indies, all-rounder Ashwin highlighted the traits Mukesh shares with superstar Shami. “I initially thought Mohammad Siraj would become the junior Shami, but I now feel it could be Mukesh Kumar. Shami is called ‘Lala’ and as a tribute to the actor Mohanlal who is called Lalettan, I call Shami Lalettan. Mukesh has a similar build, similar height, and outstanding wrist position – he has that great whip of the wrist and terrific back-spin on the ball. He has a very nice straight and nice alignment,” Ashwin said on YouTube.
‘Those two deliveries changed his life’
Ashwin also recalled Mukesh’s lesser-known interaction with legendary Pakistani pacer Waqar Younis. According to the senior all-rounder, former India skipper Sourav Ganguly had reached out to Younis, VVS Laxman and Muttiah Muralitharan for a talent hunt program after taking over the Cricket Association of Bengal. Interestingly, the India pacer took a couple of deliveries to receive Waqar’s stamp approval at the time.
“Imagine, you are going to bowl in front of Waqar Younis, and you were at the toilet. They had called out his name but he wasn’t there! He returned, waited for 30 minutes and told them that his name wasn’t called out,” Ashwin recalled. “It was then that Waqar Younis, who was about to leave, told him to bowl a couple of balls. Those two deliveries changed his life and he is now bowling for India,” he added.
Hasibur Rahaman is a passionate sports journalist. He covers everything from cricket to field hockey, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis of sporting events, both within India and on the international stage.
