Keep them guessing: Shami

New Delhi, November 19

Fast bowler Mohammed Shami has said altering the length of balls to bowl, in order to keep the batsmen guessing, would be key when India take on Bangladesh in their maiden Day/Night Test, which starts in Kolkata on Friday.

Shami returned with figures of 3/27 and 4/31 in the first Test at Indore to achieve his career-best ranking, and he said he intends to keep things simple for the historic second Test.

“What one thing bowlers should do is keep an eye on the wicket and how it is behaving, so what I do is as the pitch gets slower I keep pushing myself and when I notice that the batsman is uncomfortable, I go over the top... So the length has to keep changing,” Shami said in an interview with the official broadcaster. 

Meanwhile, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar cautioned Mayank Agarwal, who scored a double century in Indore, saying the opposition would be better prepared to counter him in future.

“He is enjoying Test cricket, this is his first year and hopefully he keeps scoring on the second year also because in the second season there is a lot more data available of you to the opposition,” Gavaskar said. “But he has been batting beautifully, the way he balances himself without falling on the offside as he plays so straight and his movement of the front and back foot has been fantastic, making him the man in form who is full of confidence.”

Complete bowling attack

Former India opener Gautam Gambhir said India now have a complete bowling unit, with quality spinners and pacers in their ranks. “If you see other oppositions, some teams have got quality fast bowling attacks, some have quality spinners,” said Gambhir. “But if you look at this Indian side, they’ve got two quality spinners, three quality seamers plus Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who are not in the playing 11.”

“So they’ve got proper five seamers plus Kuldeep Yadav, which makes it eight quality bowlers, all capable of running through batting line-ups,” Gambhir added. “And that is why the Indian side has been able to take so many all-outs in the last two years.” 

First four days’ tickets sold

Mumbai: The tickets for the first four days of India’s first Day/Night Test in Kolkata have been sold out. BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said, “It’s sold out and I'm extremely happy about it.” — PTI

Hossain gets 5-yr ban for assault 

Dhaka: The Bangladesh Cricket Board banned former national team fast bowler Shahadat Hossain for five years, two of them suspended, after he assaulted a teammate in a match. The temperamental Shahadat was reported by umpires after he was seen to slap and kick a teammate during a National Cricket League match on Sunday. The national federation suspended two years of the ban but Hossain, who admitted a charge of “physical assault”, was also fined $3,540, the board said. Hossain, 33, attacked young bowler Arafat Sunny Jr during a game between Dhaka and Khulna after an argument over how to shine the ball. “Considering his past behaviour we decided to punish him for five years. The last two years of his ban will remain suspended,” said BCB technical committee chief Minhajul Abedin. Hossain could have been banned for life. Hossain, who played 38 Tests and 51 ODIs for Bangladesh, spent nearly two months in detention in 2015 after he and his wife were accused of torturing an 11-year-old girl they employed as a maid. They were cleared when the case came to trial. Hossain hit the headlines again in 2018 when he allegedly beat a rickshaw driver for hitting his car in Dhaka. — AFP