Shikhar Dhawan praises Mohammed Shami for hat-trick, India for beating Afghanistan

Till Saturday, Mohammed Shami was made to warm the benches at the World Cup as Bhuvneshwar Kumar was Virat Kohli’s first choice in England conditions. But an opportunity came the 29-year-old pacer’s way after Bhuvneshwar injured his hamstring during the match against Pakistan last Sunday. Shami was like the Ferrari that was waiting in the garage for its day in the out. And when the chance indeed came against Afghanistan in Southampton, there was no stopping for the fast bowler.

Shami, who finished as India’s second-best bowler in the 2015 World Cup but went through a lot of injury-related concerns and returned fitter, opened India’s bowling against the Afghans. The bottom-placed side was not in the mood to give India any breather and made them toil for each run and wicket in the game. With only 224 to defend, the Indian bowlers have to do something magical and Shami did it, along with the other bowlers, including his opening partner Jasprit Bumrah who was adjudged the man of the match.

Shami gave first breakthrough, then wrapped things up

Shami gave India the first breakthrough when he castled opener Hazratullah Zazai and then picked a hat-trick in the final over of the match to give India a narrow victory by just 11 runs. Overall, he became the fourth Indian bowler to pick a hat-trick and the second Indian after Chetan Sharma to do so at the World Cup.

Ace India opener Shikhar Dhawan also praised Shami for his hat-trick and match-winning spell and congratulated India over their hard-earned win. Dhawan was also part of the Indian squad playing in the World Cup till he got his thumb broken by a Pat Cummins delivery in the match against Australia at the Oval on June 9. The southpaw, nonetheless, hit a century in that game to help India win the game by 36 runs.

Game changing innings by @MdShami11! What a spell & an amazing hat-trick! Well done team India, congratulations on the victory! ???????? ???????? pic.twitter.com/AleVDoKVZj

— Shikhar Dhawan (@SDhawan25) June 23, 2019

He was kept under monitoring after sustaining the injury and not released immediately. However, after experts said that Dhawan’s injury would not heal at least till the middle of July, he was formally replaced by Rishabh Pant in the squad. Pant, however, has not played a game yet as Vijay Shankar has continued to replace Dhawan in the playing XI with KL Rahul opening the innings with Rohit Sharma.