Duleep Trophy 2026 — Shami’s unremitting belief, the highlight of the day

 

Bharath Ramraj, COE

Somewhere, a sportsperson touches his or her nirvana behind the scenes in a training workshop — when an athlete’s body is aching, and yet there is an urge to push for a while longer in order to attain peak fitness levels. With the Duleep Trophy semifinals being played behind closed doors at the Centre of Excellence, far away from the hub of Bengaluru city, Mohammed Shami might have felt as if he was still in his training arena. On Day 3 of the East Zone-Central Zone game, all that one could hear was a generator from a nearby place running at full speed. Even the crows, a quintessential part of stadiums in the subcontinent, were missing from the action.

For Shami, all that seemed to matter was his inner voice. When Shami charged to the crease, one could visualise his inner voice coaxing or asking the veteran bowler, ‘What extra have you got?’ The body certainly responded to the question posed by the reservoirs of his willpower. He ushered in a short ball to Arshad Khan that followed the left-hand batter with a bit of venom. He also got a few to whistle past the outside edges of both Harsh Dubey and Arshad. Simply put, this is the fastest that this writer has seen Shami bowl in spells in first-class cricket since his comeback from the ankle and heel injury.

At the fag end of Day 2, too, he had cajoled the ball to move this way or that way, snaking a few past the bat before delivering the knockout punch by tempting Aryan Juyal to edge one behind. Those deliveries didn’t just speak volumes about his control and fast-bowling mindset, but also told enough of how he hasn’t lost that little bit of nip. On Day 3, Shami also took a fine return catch to send Dubey back to the hut; an indicator that, at about 36, he is still fit to play cricket at a higher level.

The key essence of Shami’s bowling, though, was not much to do with pace or nifty movement. But it was about how a stalwart of Indian cricket is still grinding it out in domestic cricket. After representing the country for a decade, it could be tough for a sportsperson to continue playing at a lower level. He could have even hung up his spiked boots and reminisced about old memories on a rocking chair. Not so Shami.

Perhaps there is a hidden machine fitted in his bones that says to him, ‘Come on, don’t give up, you can regain your place in the Indian side.’ Realistically, the selectors, rightly or wrongly, perhaps have moved on from Shami. That doesn’t seem to bother Shami one bit. For him, it is all about, ‘I have a ball in hand and I will give every ounce of my energy on the field.’

In an imaginary sense, it felt like his unstinting belief on the field coruscated through the few clouds up above. And fittingly, in a few minutes, those few clouds gave way to intermittent sunshine. Shami would hope and believe that someone up there would also smile on his career.

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