“Shami was very angry and wanted to quit cricket” – Bharat Arun reveals Mohammed Shami had a life-saving conversation with Ravi Shastri

Mohammed Shami is one of the vital cogs of India’s bowling setup in ODI and Test cricket. The right-arm fast bowler has played a substantial role in taking wickets when it really mattered the most for the Indian cricket team.

The experienced campaigner has represented the Indian cricket team in 61 Tests, 87 One-Day Internationals and 23 Twenty20 Internationals in his cricketing career. He is a regular feature when it comes to ODIs and Tests.

On the other side of the coin, he already fell out of the selectors’ radar when it comes to the T20Is. While he is not in the grand scheme of things for India in the shortest format, he has been giving it all in the other two formats of the game.

Shami has taken 219 wickets in red-ball cricket including 11 four-wicket-hauls and 6 five-wicket hauls. On the other hand, he has taken 159 wickets in the 50-over format including 9 four-wicket-hauls and one fifer. When it comes to T20Is, Shami has taken 24 wickets to his name.

Mohammed Shami had a life-saving conversation with Ravi Shastri: Bharat Arun

Meanwhile, former India’s bowling coach, Bharat Arun made the headlines after he disclosed that Mohammed Shami once decided to call it quits from international cricket but Arun himself took Shami immediately to former India’s head coach Ravi Shastri.

It was when Shami had a life-changing conversation with Ravi Shastri before India’s tour of England. Back then, during an open conversation with Bharat Arun, Shami expressed his desire of calling it quits from cricket owing to personal reasons.

Shami not only failed the yo-yo test ahead of England tour back in 2018 but also suffered multiple setbacks owing to an injury. It was when Shami decided to quit the sport but a conversation with Ravi Shastri changed the life of the paceman.

The Indian team management had earlier replaced Shami with Delhi pacer Navdeep Saini (who was uncapped at the time). Meanwhile, Shastri encouraged Shami to work quite a lot on his comeback by spending 4 weeks at the National Cricket Academy (NCA).

It was when Shami decided to go to the NCA and worked on his bowling and fitness. Fortunately, Shami ended up saving his career and is currently part of the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy series against the Australian cricket team.