Hyderabad: India defeated New Zealand in the semi-final of the World Cup 2023 on Thursday by 70 runs as Virat Kohli smashed his 50th ODI hundred. Also, Shreyas Iyer played an attacking knock. However, Mohammed Shami grabbed all the limelight in the key match with his seven-wicket haul. Reflecting on the brilliant performance of his disciple, Mohammed Shami's coach Badruddin Siddiqui expressed delight and also remarked that the bowlers have garnered all the attention in the competition so far.
"Batters were in focus earlier in the tournament history. However, the bowlers have been talked about a lot this time around. Also, I am happy to see the team scripting victories due to the performance of (Mohammed) Shami," Siddiqui revealed in an exclusive interview with ETV Bharat.
Shami has shined with the ball for the national side taking 23 wickets across six matches with a bowling average of 9.13. Interestingly, he was not a part of the playing XI due to the team combination. But (all-rounder) Hardik Pandya was injured in India's fourth fixture of the competition and the injury paved way for Shami to be slotted in the playing XI.
"All bowlers cannot be played together and so (Mohammed) Shami was benched for the initial part of the tournament. However, when he was included in the lineup, the pacer gave his 100 per cent in the field. Now, no one can ponder upon the option of benching Shami," he asserted.
India's pace trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj has been pretty effective with the ball. The three of them worked in tandem to pick 54 wickets in the competition so far.
"Batters were always the talk of town in Indian cricket. However, this is the first World Cup where bowlers have garnered the limelight this time around with their terrific performance. The Indian batters never faced a target of 350 runs because the bowlers haven't allowed the opposition batters to score so many runs," he stated.
Siddiqi praised the Indian bowling unit saying that the national team has switched to bowling attack comprising of three pacers and two spinners from playing with two pacers and three spinners.
"Earlier, India used to go with a couple of pacers and three spinners for the matches played in India. However, the conditions have changed now and the team is now preferring to play with three pacers and two spinners. These are positive signs for the Indian side. They used to struggle while touring Australia, England and South Africa but now India produces an impressive performance whenever they step on the foreign soil," he concluded.
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