I want to quit cricket: Ex-India bowling coach recalls Shami's words, reveals how Shastri motivated him

Mohammed Shami remains an integral part of Team India across formats. At 32, the pacer has represented India in 61 Tests, 87 ODIs, and 23 T20Is, claiming 219, 159, and 24 scalps respectively. While he is spearheading India's pace attack in the ongoing home Test series versus Australia, there was a time in Shami's career when he was contemplating retirement. After going through a lot in his personal life in early 2018, Shami's fitness standardsdropped and he was out of the Indian team. Just when he thought about retiring from the game, the then bowling coach Bharat Arun took him to then head coach Ravi Shastri and the former revealed how Shastri came to Shami's aid.

'I am very angry and I want to quit cricket'

Arun told Cricbuzz, "Just before the 2018 tour of England, we had a fitness test and Shami failed it. He lost his place in the Indian team. He called me and said he wanted to have a word with me. So I invited him to my room; he was going through personal turmoil. His fitness was affected, mentally he was gone. He came to me and said 'I am very angry and I want to quit cricket'. I immediately took Shami to meet Ravi Shastri. We both went up to his room and I said 'Ravi, Shami wants to say something'. Ravi asked what it was and Shami told him the same thing that 'I don't want to play cricket'. Both of us asked 'What will you do if not play cricket?' What else do you know? You know how to bowl when given the ball."

Arun added, "So Ravi said 'It's good that you're angry. This is the best thing that has happened to you because you have a ball in hand. Your fitness is poor. Whatever anger it is that you have, take it out on your body. We are going to send you to National Cricket Academy and want you to go there for 4 weeks and stay there. You will not go home, and only head to NCA. It suited Shami also because he had a problem going to Kolkata then so he spent 5 weeks at the NCA. I still remember the call he made and told me 'Sir, I have become like a stallion. Make me run as much as you want'. The 5 weeks that he spent there, he realised what working on fitness can do to him."

Not going home and working on his bowling and fitness worked wonders for Shami. He missed the one-off Test versus Afghanistan in June 2018 but returned to the Test squad for the away series in England, claiming the second-most wickets for India (17).

After that, there was no looking back for Shami.He was India's top performer in the away ODI series versus New Zealand in early 2019, took a hat-trick in the 2019 ODI World Cup, and remainsan indispensable part of India's pace attack in red-ball format to date. He is alsoa vital part of India's plans keepingthe WTC final and 2023 ODI World Cup in mind.