Mohammed Shami is more English than some of the England pacers, says Steve Harmison

Former England pacer Steve Harmison has praised both Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami for their impressive performance with the ball in the second India-England Test at Lord’s. Harmison talked highly about Shami, especially, and said that the 30-year-old is “more English than the England bowlers”. 

Ishant and Shami put up excellent performances during the second Test at Lord’s, where India sealed a memorable 151-run victory against the hosts. Ishant took a total of five wickets across both innings. Shami on the other hand was part of a record-breaking 89-run 9th wicket partnership with Bumrah, while bagging three wickets across both innings.

“You’ve got a tall bowler in Ishant who likes to get the ball going in naturally and because he has such a nice seam position, he can at times roll his fingers a little bit and get the ball nip away. So that way he’s very very dangerous as you can be doubtful about where your off stump is. That’s why he is Virat’s go-to man as he can give him a lot of overs,” Harmison told ESPNcricinfo.

“Shami I think is more English than some of the seamers that we’ve got in our team because he runs up, he’s got great core strength, a big backside, a bit like Matthew Hoggard and my time. We used to have big backsides, could really swing it away in and around off stump and I think Shami is a fine fine bowler,” said Harmison.

The 42-year-old then went on to explain how the duo complemented each other with their unique bowling styles.

“With that, you’ve got somebody like Ishant who is 6 feet or 4 and Shami who is about 5 feet 10. One is bringing the ball back in, the other is taking it away. They complement each other a lot,” he stated.

The third test is scheduled to start on the 25th of August at Headingley, Leeds.