Mohammed Shami: How can people forget Jasprit Bumrah's achievements?

Jasprit Bumrah

Hamilton: Mohammed Shami is making the most of his phenomenal form across all three formats.

On Saturday, he once again showed his class with a performance of 10-5-17-3 on Day Two of the practice match to skittle out New Zealand XI for 235 in reply to India's first innings score of 263. Jasprit Bumrah was the other most impressive pacer with 11-3-18-2. Umesh Yadav and Navdeep Saini were also among the wickets, claiming two each and R Ashwin getting one.

While Shami made full use of the overcast conditions on the second day, the Bengal pacer came out in support of his new-ball partner Bumrah, who was under fire after going wicketless in the ODI series against the Kiwis. "How can people forget Jasprit Bumrah's numerous match-winning performances just after a couple of indifferent ODI games? Just because he hasn't performed in two games, you can't just ignore his ability to win matches," said Shami, who claimed 10 wickets on India's last Test tour to New Zealand in 2014.

"What Bumrah has achieved for India, how can you even forget that or for that matter ignore it? So if you think positively, then it's good for the player and his confidence."

Shami reminded the media that Bumrah was coming off a four-month injury lay off. "Every sportsman can get injured and one should try and look at the positives rather than harp on negatives. I also got injured in 2015 [knee surgery] but then I bounced back.

"People tend to think very differently and when you do not do well in a few games, their view point about you changes. So on our part, we shouldn't over-think," he said.

Talking about his stupendous form, Shami's magnificent control over seam has reaped him rich rewards. Shami put it down to just passion and hard work. "When you start working on something, you grow a passion; I have to achieve it. I never thought I would start developing a great seam position but when I realised that a good seam position can help, I just worked on it. By God's grace, now I can do whatever I want with the seam. Hope it continues. If you want to achieve something, passion is a prerequisite," he concluded.

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