Mohammed Shami's transformation in fitness has been phenomenal, feels Zaheer Khan

Mohammed Shami's transformation in fitness has been phenomenal, feels Zaheer Khan

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Legendary Indian pacer Zaheer Khan feels that Mohammed Shami's incredible transformation with respect to his fitness has been the primary reason for his success of late. Shami, during the early stages of his career, was often criticized for his fitness but now has put everything behind him.

There came a point in Mohammed Shami's career when all the people who watched him thought that he would never go on to scale great heights primarily because of his injury concerns, fitness and inconsistency. Despite the talent being visible for everyone to see, a combination of these factors haunted Shami for the majority of his first few years and with off-field controversies brewing, it almost came to a point when people started giving up hope on the speedster.

However, over the course of the past 18 months, the 29-year-old has managed to pull off an extraordinary turnaround with respect to all aspects, but none so more than his fitness. From being an inconsistent bowler who showed rare flashes of brilliance, Shami went on to become a pivotal member of India's pace trio that has run riot on opposition batsmen for fun.

Former Indian pacer Zaheer Khan, like many others, is also of the opinion that the key to Shami's turnaround has been his fitness, which has gone to a whole new level in the past year. 

"With Shami we all knew about the wrist position and the upright seam. The only iffy thing was fitness but now he has worked on that," Zaheer Khan told  Mumbai Mirror, reported ESPNcricinfo.

"He has been phenomenal in terms of getting his fitness level up to the standard that is required. This has been a huge plus for him. Ability was always there. Just that some injuries had kept him out for a year. He has come back strongly. A lot of credit has to go to him for how he is managing himself and the hunger that he has shown to come back and play at the top level," he added.

Zaheer also feels that Navdeep Saini, who has been the breakthrough star for India in the pace department in 2019, is more suited to the longer format of the game, contrary to popular opinion.

"The longer format, that's the format that suits Saini. Saini has got the pace and consistency in length," he said. 

With a plethora of world-class fast bowlers in both international cricket and in domestic cricket, India is currently enjoying its golden era of fast bowling. Zaheer feels that there are plenty of reasons for this transformation and credited the infrastructure, fitness facilities and also the guidance of seniors for this turnaround which has seen India become almost a hub for fast bowler in the past couple of years.

"Over the years, the infrastructure has improved. There is this access to better fitness facilities. There are these processes in place like the one at the National Cricket Academy where players are taken care of since Under-14s. There is also a proper passing of knowledge and that is helping in a big way," he signed off.

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