'We saw what he did': Rohit Sharma lauds Mohammed Shami after his death-over heroics against Australia

Senior India pacer Mohammed Shami made a brilliant comeback as he bowled a stunning final over to help India beat Australia by six runs in the warm-up match between the two sides at The Gabba on Monday (October 17). Shami went on to pick three wickets in the final over while defending 11 runs to secure a thrilling victory for the Men in Blue.

Batting first, India rode on the fifties from KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav to post 186 runs on the board before the bowlers gave their all to defend the target.Skipper Aaron Finch's 54-ball 76 went in vain as Australia fell short towards the end after Shami's last-over heroics.

With 11 runs to defend in the final over, Shami sent Pat Cummins packing on the third delivery before Ashton Agar was run-out on the next ball. Shami then went on to nail two perfect yorkers to clean up Josh Inglis and Kane Richardson on successive deliveries and seal India's victory.

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Shami was nowhere to be seen before the final over of the Australia innings and was not part of India's XI initially However, Rohit brought him to bowl the final over throwing him a huge challenge on his return to competitive cricket after a long gap. The Indian skipper said it was always the plan to bowl Shami in the final over while lauding him for executing the plan well.

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"Honestly, he is coming back after a long time. So we just wanted to give him an over. This was always the plan from the beginning," Rohit said on Star Sports.

"He comes and bowls at the death. We know how lethal he can be with the new ball. We just wanted to give him a little bit of a challenge, coming and bowling that death over and we saw what it was," he added.

While Shami impressed on his return despite getting to bowl just one over in the warm-up game, other Indian bowlers were taken to the cleaners as Australia came close to overhauling the target. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 2/20 in his three overs but barring him, all others conceded runs heavily.

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Rohit said there is still room for improvement for the Indian bowlers, who will have to adapt to the Australian conditions and vary their line and length accordingly to ensure they can be more effective when India begintheir T20 World Cup 2022 campaign against Pakistan on October 23.

"There is definitely room for improvement. Iam sure we are on it but I want to see more consistency in terms of where you want to pitch the ball. You know, when you play back home and when you play in Australian conditions, you have to change your tactics, change your lengths a little bit. Sometimes, keeping it simple and hitting the ball hard on the deck will be a good option.