Indian pacer Mohammad Shami added another feather to his illustrious cap when he picked up a five-wicket haul on Day 3 of the ongoing Boxing Day Test against South Africa at SuperSport Park in Centurion.
With the fifer, Shami entered the 200-wicket club in the longest format, becoming only the fifth Indian seamer to accomplish such a landmark. Riding on Shami’s stupendous bowling effort, India bowled out South Africa for 197 and took a first-innings lead of 130 runs.
The 31-year-old, who dismissed Kagiso Rabada to pick his 200th scalp in red-ball format, credited his father for his success in Test cricket. Shami stressed the fact that he could not have realized his dream without his father’s support in the challenging conditions in the village where he grew up. Notably, Shami lost his father, Tousif Ali, in 2017 due to a heart attack.
“My father has made me what I am today. I come from a village where there aren’t many facilities, and even today there aren’t all facilities available. Even then, my father would cycle me 30 km to take me to coaching camp and that struggle I still remember. In those days and those situations, they invested in me, and I am forever grateful,” Shami said in the presser on Tuesday.
Shami also revealed that if the current Indian bowling attack is so strong, it is due to the bowlers’ hard work in the last six to seven years.
“If India’s pace bowling is so strong, it’s come on the backs of our own skills, we’ve all come here having built our strengths. You can say that it’s the result of the hard work we’ve put in over the last 6-7 years. Yes, we’ve had support staff who’ve always been with us to support our skills, but you can’t name one person. It’s the result of the work we’ve put in over the last 6-7 years, so I give credit to that hard work, and the credit should always go to the person who’s put in that hard work,” added Shami.
