The star India bowler Mohammad Shami has taken a brutal dig at the ‘Fame and power’ remark towards Virat Kohli by the country’s former spinner Amit Mishra, who feels that the former captain of the blue brigade has changed over the years.
The leg-spinner highlighted the equation with the current ODI and Test captain of the Indian team, Rohit Sharma, who according to Mishra is still the same person, even after being famous and carrying all the responsibilities.
When he was asked about the incident between Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, the Delhi-born revealed that it was the former who made the first attempt to develop the relationship between the two Indian batters, while it should have been Kohli initiating the patch-up.
‘They constantly kept calling me…’- Mohammad Shami
Mohammad Shami, however, has made a fiery response to the former spinner. Even though he didn’t take the name of Amit Mishra, the 33-year-old feels that whenever someone needs media attention, he will just take the name of Kohli, to be on the front page of the morning newspaper.
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‘Many former cricketers know that whenever they say something against Virat, their name will appear on the front page of the newspapers the next day, so they do it deliberately.’ Mohammad Shami expressed in the recent podcast on Shubhankar Mishra’s YouTube channel.
The Uttar Pradesh-born has been a team-mate of the former Indian captain for a long time. The relationship between these two grew more and got powerful when Kohli took a stand for Shami during the 2021 T20 World Cup.
Mohammad Shami was India’s most expensive bowler of the evening with figures of 0/43 in 3.5 overs, when India lost their very first T20 World Cup game against Pakistan in Dubai. The pacer was subjected to widespread abuse, particularly on Instagram, with Islamophobia.
‘There’s a good reason why we are playing on the field and not some bunch of spineless people on social media that have no courage to actually speak to any individual in person.’ The Delhi-born commentated before Inda’s next game against New Zealand. ‘They hide behind their identities and go after people through social media, making fun of people and that has become a source of entertainment in today’s world.’
He also went on to say that people have no understanding of what the players do as individuals, as Mohammad Shami has won many games for India in the last few years.
‘People take out their frustrations because they have no understanding of what we do as individuals – they have no understanding of how much effort we put on the field.’ The former captain of the national side noted. ‘I honestly don’t even want to waste one minute of my life to give any attention to those people. Neither does Shami and neither does anyone else in the team. We stand by him fully. We are backing him 200%.’
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Shami also has picked up his best friends from the Indian team, both of whom used to call him during his injury time.
‘Virat Kohli and Ishant Sharma are my best friends. They constantly kept calling me when I was injured.’ Mohammad Shami concluded.
The good news for the blue brigade has been that the pacer has started his bowling again, after being out of action since the ODI World Cup last year, where he was the highest wicket-taker of the event, with 24 scalps in seven innings.
