Mohammad Shami has gone through a lot in his career. From one of the worst knee injuries, to fitness concerns, adding to hurdles in his personal life, Shami has faced some really tough times. Through all of those times though, Shami has remained as stubborn as ever. His stubbornness shows in his training methods. In an era where strength training is given a lot of importance, Shami has carved a style of staying away from the gym as he continues to spend his training time bowling his heart out in the nets.

In many ways, Mohammad Shami is rather old-fashioned. His bowling too could go under the same category with Shami’s once being a predictable bowler who would not mix up his pace or change his spots much. His success stories in the IPL started with the Punjab Kings, and now, the Gujarat Titans are enjoying his bowling as he consistently delivers for them.

Last season he gave them 20 wickets and now he has the purple cap with 28 wickets. He has led the bowling attack, putting pressure on the best of openers up front. He has stuck to his hard length, bowling in the same spots, to find batters in all sorts of discomfort. As expected, with his lengths and ability to swing the ball, Mohammad Shami’s wickets have primarily been in the first six overs.

Going deeper into his bowling though shows that the swing Shami has extracted is not extraordinary and has been similar to the other bowlers in the same phase. Unlike the likes of Trent Boult and Mohammad Siraj though, Shami has maintained his pace with most of his deliveries, and has hit different lengths compared to them. He has persisted with the good length and back of good length, despite batters going after him, and has made it really tough for batters to find control to their shots, inducing edges with ease.

His success though has not been limited to the initial phase. Mohammad Shami has bowled a few overs in the middle and death as well and has used the yorker to good effect. His yorker has been an improving feature in his bowling and his defense of six in the Super Over against Mumbai Indians in 2020 is evidence of his ability to nail Yorkers consistently.

Additionally, being part of an attack which knows its role has helped. With Shami at the start, Mohit Sharma manning the end overs and Rashid Khan controlling the middle-phase, life has become easier for Mohammad Shami. With Mohit at the death, Mohammad Shami has been able to settle into his role at his favorite phase and now the Gujarat Titans are reaping the rewards for Mohammad Shami’s efforts.