No injury to Mohammad Shami, reveals Sanjay Bangar

11/10/2016

India's batting coach Sanjay Bangar has revealed that Mohammad Shami suffered cramps and not an injury on Wednesday and that the fast bowler will continue to play in the remainder of the first Test against England. Bangar said dropped catches had cost India dearly on the opening day.

It turned out to be a frustrating day for India with the visitors piling 311 for four and pace spearhead Shami's discomfort with what appeared to be a hamstring injury and left the field twice to receive treatment.

"As the physio has told us, it was actually muscular cramps. And he took an ice bath in that break [when Shami went off before tea]. He was fine to bowl after that,” Bangar was quoted by ESPN.in.

“He is being monitored closely. And apart from the cramps, I don't think there is much to it. Hopefully he will be fresher tomorrow. He will be fitter and raring to go tomorrow in the first session."

Bangar lauded fast bowler Umesh Yadav's tireless effort on a difficult day.

"You must have noticed that at that time there was a lot of reverse swing on offer," Bangar said. "Mohammed Shami was available to bowl, even Umesh Yadav put in a valiant effort. Once Shami was not available before tea and after tea for a particular amount of time, Umesh ran in well and got us that breakthrough [Root's wicket on 124].

“He was pretty impressive, getting the ball to reverse both ways. So was Shami. That was the reason we felt that the wicket-taking possibility with the old ball was higher at that point."

India dropped both the England openers early on in the day. "Whether you bat first or bowl first you have to make the first session count. Send the right message across. Couple of dropped chances unfortunately didn't allow us to make those early dents into their batting,” the former India all-rounder said.

“They have been actually losing their openers pretty quickly in the couple of Test matches they have played [in Bangladesh]. That set us back a little bit. By lunch we still managed to take three wickets, but we would have taken that at the start of the Test.”

India are hoping for an early breakthrough on day two to wrest back the initiative.

"The game changes very quickly. A couple of wickets - obviously they are four down at the moment - a couple of wickets and we could make inroads quickly and wrap them up hopefully within a session and a half. So you never know in cricket. It's just day one and we would have still been in a good position had we taken probably six wickets and conceded 30 or 40 fewer runs," the coach said.

No injury to Mohammad Shami, reveals Sanjay Bangar

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