Published: Feb 15, 2023, 10:54 AM (IST)
Edited: Feb 15, 2023, 10:54 AM (IST)
New Delhi: Former India bowling coach Ravi Shastri has revealed that ace pacer Mohammad Shami wanted to quit cricket after failing a fitness Test in 2018. Shami has been one of the main bowlers in Test cricket for India. The pacer, however, has been in and out of the side owing to several injuries. Arun revealed that Ravi Shastri convinced him to stay motivated and not give up.
“Just before the 2018 tour of England, we had a fitness test and Shami had failed it. He lost his place in the Indian team. He called me and said he wanted to have a word with me. So I invited him to my room; he was going through a personal turmoil. His fitness was affected, mentally he was gone. He came to me and said ‘I am very angry and I want to quit cricket’.
I immediately took Shami to meet Ravi Shastri. We both went up to his room and I said ‘Ravi, Shami wants to say something’. Ravi asked what it was and Shami told him the same thing that ‘I don’t want to play cricket’. Both of us asked ‘What will you do if not play cricket?’ What else do you know? You know how to bowl when given the ball,” Arun told Cricbuzz.
Arun added that Shastri sent Shami to the NCA which worked wonders for him.
‘It’s good that you’re angry. This is the best thing that has happened to you because you have a ball in hand. Your fitness is poor. Whatever anger it is that you have, take it out on your body. We are going to send you to National Cricket Academy and want you to go there for 4 weeks and stay there. You will not go home, and only head to NCA.
It suited Shami also because he had a problem going to Kolkata then so he spent 5 weeks at the NCA. I still remember the call he made and told me ‘Sir, I have become like a stallion. Make me run as much as you want’. The 5 weeks that he spent there, he realised what working on fitness can do to him.”
