The Junction Oval in St. Kilda sits just across the road from Albert Park, where in a month’s time the Formula One bandwagon will roll up, with its booming engines and melting tyres. For the rest of the year, though, the Oval is a monument to serenity.
India trained there on Wednesday, in what are extraordinarily beautiful settings: parkland on two sides, a white picket fence, an invitingly green outfield, and two heritage grandstands — both closing in on a centenary of years.
The Oval itself dates back to 1856 and it is easy to imagine the place as it was a century ago: only Melbourne’s construction beams and high-rises need erasing from the background.
India’s cricketers spent nearly three hours training there (and who can blame them) — football, nets, and then some time on the pitch at the centre.
Mohammed Shami was one of the last to walk off, having amused himself thoroughly with his batting, sending a few deliveries sailing in the direction of the fence and one even out of the Oval’s bounds.
A little earlier though Shami had been bounding in ball in hand, with his urgent, eager run-up, hurrying M.S. Dhoni (who batted for an hour at least) and anyone else who faced him.
Shami is only 24 (he will turn 25 before the end of the World Cup), and yet, within two years of his debut, he has grown to become one of India’s principal bowlers, across formats.
On Sunday in Adelaide, his four for 35, a career-best, did not perhaps attract a great deal of praise. Maybe there are factors in that spell going relatively unsung: Shahid Afridi was out off a full toss, Wahab Riaz was a tail-ender, and even Misbah-ul-Haq was aware that his wicket was a mere formality.
To Dhoni, though, his value will not be something to debate. Shami bounced Younis Khan out in the fourth over, with a sharp climber that smacked him on the glove.
Who knows how that shook the confidence of those that followed. He was then brought on in the batting PowerPlay, when Afridi and Misbah had added 43 runs for the sixth wicket. The full toss that got Afridi was at worst an attempted yorker; and had the batsman carried on, there would’ve been trouble. Shami bowls with the new ball, in the PowerPlays, and in the ‘death’ — he is Dhoni’s first port of call when in need of a yorker.
Positive approach “He’s got pace, a terrific seam position, and a great out-swinger,” says the former India bowler and bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad.
“He looks very fit and also has a strong run-up. By that I mean that he has a positive approach to the crease; he doesn’t jog but sprints in. Not everybody can have a perfect delivery stride and release; fast bowlers are made differently.”
Shami’s numbers are healthy — 74 wickets from 41 ODIs, and 64 from the last 30. He’s the second fastest Indian bowler to 50 wickets (29 matches) and is on course to get to 100 before Irfan Pathan (59 matches). Such extrapolation can be risky, though. Pathan reached the landmark quicker than any Indian bowler but never got to 200. It has been three years since he played an ODI.
Inconsistent There is no mistaking, though, that Shami can be inconsistent. Statistically, he was India’s best bowler in the Test series here, but far too often he was guilty of offering batsmen easy boundaries. In the first hour of play in Melbourne, for example, he let Chris Rogers cut loose when the noose had steadily been tightened at the other end.
“That is a strategic and tactical aspect. It is something the support staff need to work on. It wasn’t just Shami; all the bowlers were the same,” Prasad says.
“India has always had somebody who bowls that three-quarter length; it is what Zaheer Khan did and what Sreesanth did. With pace, they bowled up to the bat. But even with pace, if you bowl short and give the batsman too much room, you deserve punishment.”
In Prasad’s eyes, Shami is India’s number one bowler here. “With Ishant Sharma absent, he’s the leader of the pack. So the team needs to give him confidence, make him understand his strengths and weaknesses.”
Incidentally, the best figures by an Indian bowler against Pakistan in the World Cup belong to Prasad, his five for 27 at Old Trafford still top of the pile. Earlier this week, Mohammed Shami climbed into second place.
