CHENNAI: Did the untamed beauty of Mohammed Shami zap you all over again? Well, press the pause button right there and imagine how close India were to missing him totally. Had it not been for Hardik Pandya’s injury, Shami might not have taken any of those 23 wickets that have taken India to the World Cup final.
Set to be sacrificed at the altar of ‘team composition’, Shami seemed slightly lost in Chennai ahead of India’s World Cup opener against Australia. But then, the 33-year-old was ready, just as he was all those years ago when he was making his first-class debut for Bengal at the Eden Gardens in 2010-11.