Mohammed Shami was the standout bowler of the 2023 ICC Men’s ODI World Cup finishing as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker. Despite missing the initial few matches, the right-arm pacer left an indelible mark with his remarkable show.
Now a report claims that Shami was dealing with a ‘chronic heel issue’ throughout the world cup and took injection to deal with the pain.
“Shami has a chronic left heel issue. A lot of people don’t know that he took injections regularly during World Cup and played the entire tournament through pain,” news agency PTI quoted an unnamed a former Bengal teammate of Shami as saying.
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“But you must understand that as you grow older, recovery from each niggle or big injury takes that more time,” he added.
Shami sat out from India’s first four matches of the ODI showpiece as India went ahead with fast-bowling allrounder Shardul Thakur to add depth to their batting.
However, an unfortunate injury to Hardik Pandya against Bangladesh in Pune meant a spot opened up and Shami grabbed the opportunity with both hands to finish with 24 wickets from just seven appearances including three five-fors.
Australia spinner Adam Zampa, who finished second on the top wicket-takers list with 23 scalps, played 11 matches to do so.
Shami hasn’t played any competitive cricket since India’s final defeat to Australia on November 19 and has also been ruled out from the ongoing tour of South Africa due to an ankle issue.
India felt the absence of the experienced Shami in their recent Test defeat to South Africa.
Jasprit Bumrah was the lone bright spot in India’s listless show with the ball as debutant Prasidh Krishna and Thakur struggled with their line and length resulting in South Africa racking up over 400 runs on a pitch which heavily assisted the fast bowlers.
Following their innings defeat, India have drafted in Avesh Khan as Shami’s replacement for the second Test that starts from January 3 in Cape Town.
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