Indian fast Bowler, Mohammed Shami, who can be seen playing for Lucknow Super Giants in IPL 2026, has caught the eyes of many pundits with his stellar performances this season. The latest came against Sunrisers Hyderabad, where he posted astonishing figures of just 9 runs in 4 overs, picking up 2 wickets in return for his consistent lines and lengths. Despite being a key figure in India’s bowling successes over the past few years, he still manages to fly under the radar and doesn’t receive the recognition he deserves.
Former Indian cricketer-turned-commentator, Aakash Chopra, bluntly summed up this concern on his YouTube channel, “Are we giving Mohammad Shami enough credit, and when will we actually give him credit? It's a big question. Why are we not celebrating him? I am the same person who was saying that the selectors have to choose, and if they are not selecting, they might have seen him, his fitness, and whatever.”
Chopra added, “I had also said that everyone has to stand up and take notice if he does it in the IPL. Then you cannot say that the opposing team's standard wasn't that good. This is the most competitive league in the world. In such a scenario, he bowled four overs for just nine runs and two wickets, including 18 dot balls, in an afternoon game against the SunRisers Hyderabad.”
Chopra's remarks are not just about this match. They highlight not only Shami’s wicket-taking ability but the control he brings to the game, especially on T20 pitches that continue to favour batters. His bowling heroics restricted SRH to 156, with crucial wickets of Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head. The total felt below par for a team packed with proven hitters in modern T20 cricket.
{{/usCountry}}Chopra's remarks are not just about this match. They highlight not only Shami’s wicket-taking ability but the control he brings to the game, especially on T20 pitches that continue to favour batters. His bowling heroics restricted SRH to 156, with crucial wickets of Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head. The total felt below par for a team packed with proven hitters in modern T20 cricket.
{{/usCountry}}“He dismissed Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma. You have got to celebrate because these are once-in-an-IPL analysis. Where will you get such analysis again? I know Jacob Duffy bowled very well in the first match, but this was an afternoon game. There is no help at all for fast bowlers in an afternoon game, and there was no help for him as well,” Chopra analysed.
Shami’s calibre against high-class batters
Chopra also pointed out that Shami’s discipline stood out against batters of such high calibre in the SRH batting lineup. How the veteran seamer, a proven red-ball specialist, is putting in yards to adjust his game to modern T20 cricket by working on a slower variation.
“He has worked on his slower one as well. It's evident that he has worked on his slower one because he neither has a back-of-the-hand slower one nor a knuckleball. He just bowls one kind of slower one, where he rolls the fingers over the ball, but he has come after working on it. It's an upgraded version,” Chopra observed.
Yet, as Chopra highlighted, the conversation rarely revolves around him. That brings the conversation back to the same question: if such performances are not called out, what does it take to earn recognition in a league driven by noise?
Shami’s numbers and impact in the middle don’t lie, and as the season unfolds, spells of such standard could prove crucial for LSG and might catch the selectors' attention once again.