Mohammed Shami’s veiled attack on Virat Kohli, Ravi Shastri on dropping him in World Cup: ’I have no answers’

Indian pacer Mohammed Shami has been out of the team since the last ODI World Cup in November 2023 and has missed all cricketing action since then, including the IPL and the T20 World Cup 2024. The bowler had to undergo surgery on his right tendon in February this year.

Now, in a recent interaction with Shubhankar Mishra on his YouTube show ‘Unplugged,’ Shami has spoken about being missing from the field despite taking a good amount of wickets. The pacer has taken a veiled attack on Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri for dropping him in the 2019 World Cup. Notably, during the 2019 World Cup, Team India was led by Virat Kohli while Ravi Shastri was the coach. Expressing his thoughts, Shami told Mishra, “The one thing I keep wondering is every team needs players who can perform well. I took 13 wickets in three matches. What more do you expect from me?”

He said, “In 2019 I did not play the first 4-5 games. In the next game, I took a hat-trick, then picked up a five-wicket haul and then four wickets in the next game."

He added that a similar thing happened to him during the 2023 World Cup, “I did not play in the first few games and then picked five, then four wickets and then a five-wicket haul again.”

“The one thing I keep wondering is every team needs players who can perform well. I took 13 wickets in three matches. What more do you expect from me? I neither have questions nor do I have answers. I can only prove myself when I get the opportunity. You gave me a chance, and I took 13 wickets in three matches. Then we lost to New Zealand. I played four matches overall and picked 14 wickets. In 2023, I picked 24 wickets in seven matches,” he told Mishra.

In the ICC World Cup 2023, Mohammed Shami single-handedly decimated dangerous batting orders of the world and played a crucial role in taking India to the finals. Meanwhile, this year, Shami was also conferred with the Arjuna Award. Over his decade-long career, he has taken 229 wickets in Tests, 195 in ODIs, and 24 in T20Is.