Dubai (UAE)

Indian pace veteran Mohammed Shami continues to be a success story that keeps inspiring. After battling an injury that kept him out of action for over a year and some off-colour international outings, the 34-year-old delivered when it mattered the most: A five-wicket haul in an all-important ICC Champions Trophy campaign opener against Bangladesh.

While Bangladesh is not the greatest threat to the Men in Blue, the fact that India has only three games to decide their fate in the tournament and their next one is a high-octane, pressure-raising game against arch-rivals Pakistan, it was vital for India to start off well. Shami delivered a five-wicket haul, figures of 5/53, including two early wickets that dismantled the Bangladesh top-order and left them reeling at 35/5 before Towhid Hridoy and Jaker Ali performed some admirable repair work with their 154-run stand, taking the team to 228 runs.

India's go-to-bowler in ICC tournaments

Shami overtook legendary Zaheer Khan to become India's top wicket-taker in ODI ICC events, with 60 scalps. Among all the bowlers who have bowled at least 10 innings across two ODI tournaments, the 50-over World Cup and Champions Trophy, the bowler has the best average (13.28) and best strike rate (15.5), as per Wisden.

Shami has five five-wicket hauls in ICC ODI events, two more than Australian stars Glenn McGrath, Mitchell Starc and Bangladesh's Mustafizur Rahman. Four of these fifers have come in the World Cup.

 A modern ODI great despite missing out so much game-time

He also accomplished 200 ODI wickets in this match, becoming the fastest Indian to do so and third-fastest overall. In terms of balls taken, he is the fastest to the milestone, with his double century of wickets coming in 5,126 balls.

Shami has featured in 104 out of 251 ODIs played since his debut in January 2013 and still has fifth-most scalps by an Indian pacer and overall at eighth spot among all Indian bowlers. In this time period, no other Indian bowler has managed 200 wickets in ODIs and only Mitchell Starc, Adil Rashid and Trent Boult have more wickets.

Among all bowlers with at least 200 ODI wickets, Shami has the best strike rate (25.4) ever, outdoing greats like Muttiah Muralitharan, Shane Warne, Wasim Akram, Brett Lee. Glenn McGrath, Waqar Younis, Mitchell Starc among several others.

The bowler has taken six five-wicket hauls in 104 innings. Among all bowlers who have more than five five-wicket hauls in ODIs, Shami's ratio of five-for-to-innings is 17.3, only behind Australia's Mitchell Starc (14.1). Only Waqar and Boult manage to have sub-20 ratio here.

The usually shy player took to X to celebrate his success against Bangladesh in the Chmapions trophy at Dubai:

A day to cherish! Reaching 200 ODI wickets, becoming India's highest wicket-taker, and taking a five-for today – feeling blessed! Thanks to God and everyone for the support#shami #wicket #mdshami #championstrophy pic.twitter.com/Xbd5NQidNZ

— 𝕸𝖔𝖍𝖆𝖒𝖒𝖆𝖉 𝖘𝖍𝖆𝖒𝖎 (@MdShami11) February 20, 2025

Shami's greatness is not decided by conditions

As numbers reflect, Shami is not bothered by conditions and tends to dominate across several match and pitch conditions. His home and away ODI averages are pretty much the same: 24.89 versus 24.57. In neutral venues, that number slides down to 19.15.

His ODI career has been defined by sporadic appearances. Since 2020, he has played just 31 ODIs, with 19 coming in 2023. He played no ODIs in 2021 and three in 2022. 2023 was his best ODI year ever with 43 scalps at an average of 16.46.

Brilliant ability to bounce back from injuries

 Shami's career has been halted by numerous injuries. He has often featured in World Cups for his country while taking pain-killer injections and medicines. During the 2015 WC, he finished as the fourth-highest wicket-taker with 17 wickets in seven matches.

In 2017, he could not play in the Champions Trophy due to a shoulder issue and could just play five ODIs between the 2015 WC end and the start of 2019. Yet Shami had a fine showing in 2019 WC, 14 wickets in four matches at an average of around 13.

Fast forward four years later, Shami had a dream WC outing, ending as top-wicket-taker with 24 wickets in seven matches at an average of 10.70. But he ended up injuring his ankle and a lengthy rehab period followed the tournament. After that in training, Shami looked slower and bulkier and battled self-doubt, yet he was back in Indian colours in Dubai, shattering records and reaching new heights.

Effective in all phases of the game

Shami is at his best statistically as a first-change bowler, brought after the first two new ball bowlers. He averages 18.45 in 22 innings and has 55 scalps at a strike rate of 20.1. He took the same role during the 2023 WC, cleaning the house after Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj wreaked havoc with the new ball. Before this, Shami had taken this position in 2019, after that year's World Cup.

He is fine with the new ball as well.

With the new ball, his bowling average of 25.63 is comparable to stars like Dale Steyn, Waqar and Shaheen Shah Afridi, and and is outdone only by Bumrah. In 78 innings with the new ball, he has taken 144 wickets.

Shami hits the deck relentlessly with seam and can get movement off the pitch either way. It also helps him get extra lift, something which he manages even with a semi-new ball. About 66 per cent of his batters are top-order batters and in overs 11-20, he averages 17.7. Exactly 90 per cent of his dismissals have been to batters with scores between 0 to nine.

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Since his debut, Shami has taken most ODI wickets during death overs (41-50 overs) with a 300-ball cutoff. While it becomes expensive for him at an economy rate of 7.67, he can pick wickets well with use of yorkers and cutters. His strike rate in this phase, 14.28 is better than likes of Bumrah, Starc and Mustafizur.