Mohammed Shami hits back at Inzamam-Ul-Haq’s 'cartoonish comments' against Arshdeep Singh

Star India pacer Mohammed Shami recently came forward to hit back on former Pakistan cricketer Inzamam-Ul-Haq’s allegations that India was tampering with the ball during their clash against Australia in the T20 World Cup 2024. The allegations were directed at Arshdeep Singh, who was reverse swinging the ball against Australia on June 24.

Speaking in an interview, Shami launched a scathing reply to the former cricketer, even remembering a time when similar comments were made against him by former Pakistan cricketer Hasan Raza during the ODI World Cup 2023.

“Apparently, I got a different type of ball in the World Cup. I even said in an interview that I would one day cut open the ball. In fact, I still have the Player of the Match ball with me. Another person came up with a remark on how Arshdeep managed to reverse swing the ball,” Mohammed Shami told Shubhankar Mishra on his YouTube show ‘Unplugged’.

“I have only one thing to tell Inzamam-ul-Haq: if you can do it, you are a magician, but when others do it, you call it ball tampering. It's unexpected when a player of his stature makes such comments. Take these cartoonish comments somewhere else. Getting the ball to reverse swing does not require any magic, you just need to maintain it properly,” he added.

India skipper Rohit Sharma had also hit back on Inzamam-Ul-Haq’s comments about the same during the T20 World Cup, explaining the nuances of reverse swinging. However, Inzamam-Ul-Haq replied by saying, “teach something to someone who taught it to the world.”

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It is also worth noting that Hasan Raza had alleged that the Indian team had been given different sets of balls by the BCCI and the ICC during the second innings of a game, which allowed them to bowl better than any team in the tournament. “There needs to be an inspection done on the ball, here could also be an extra layer of coating on the ball for swing,” Hasan Raza was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times.