Is Mohammad Shami an overrated test bowler?

[Majestic]

In his entire career, he hasn't won his team a single test match on his own. He doesn't even have a man of match award in his test career.

 

In contrast, even Zaheer and Srinath have won numerous man of the match awards. Kapil and even young Bumrah have done it several times.

 

I think Mohammad Shami is an inferior test bowler to both Zaheer and Srinath in my opinion.

 

Discuss!

Edited February 6, 2021 by Majestic

[Majestic]

Total 5-fers by Indian pacers:-

 

Kapil - 23

Zaheer - 11

Ishant - 11

Srinath - 10

Pathan - 7

Bumrah - 5

Shami - 5

 

 

[Jay]

His issue is he can't carry a team but he is deadly with a good lead bowler.

[R!TTER]

On flat or relatively flat pitches, like India or Oz, he's deadly. Seaming or swigging prodigiously - he's overrated because he can't really control swing that much, like Umesh.

[Majestic]

5 minutes ago, Jay said:

His issue is he can't carry a team but he is deadly with a good lead bowler.

Yeah, he is not a leader of the bowling by himself. Good for taking a few wickets and bowl good spells here and there.

Edited February 6, 2021 by Majestic

[Suhaan]

Not many teams had more than 1 lead pacer

Spinners are different entity,there can be leaders too

Shami is quite good with old ball,in someway you can brand him leader of the pack with old cherry

Edited February 6, 2021 by Suhaan

[Trichromatic]

He is rated because he can pick 2 wickets at right time on relatively flat tracks.

[express bowling]

Shami has been an amazing bowler in tests in Asia. One of the very best. 

 

And he has done really well in tests in Australia, WI and SA in the last 5 years.

 

He has 9 four wicket hauls too.  Fifers is not the only measure of success.

 

 

[Lone Wolf]

Except England he is a match winner everywhere. 

[Mosher]

1 hour ago, Majestic said:

In his entire career, he hasn't won his team a single test match on his own. He doesn't even have a man of match award in his test career.

 

In contrast, even Zaheer and Srinath have won numerous man of the match awards. Kapil and even young Bumrah have done it several times.

 

I think Mohammad Shami is an inferior test bowler to both Zaheer and Srinath in my opinion.

 

Discuss!

Shami picked up 9 wickets in his debut test match itself and that was a match winning performance. But Rohit got the MOM for his 177. https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/west-indies-tour-of-india-2013-14-668845/india-vs-west-indies-1st-test-676525/full-scorecard

 

Shami is a beast in Indian conditions and has performed really well in SA, SL and WI. But yes he has underperformed in Aus, Eng and NZ. Srinath and Zaheer didn't have to compete with good bowling partners for wickets like Shami has to especially overseas. 

Edited February 6, 2021 by Mosher

[Majestic]

South African Wickets have mostly been bowling friendly for over several years now. 

 

West Indies are just about minnow level team and Ashwin has a brilliant record there as a leader of the pack.

 

At home, both Ashwin and Jadeja are leaders of pack. Jadeja has total 12 5-fers in his test career.

 

Can't really recall any match winning spell from Shami in tests. When Bumrah came back post injury in the first NZ test, you would understand he needs some games to get things on track and then you expect Shami to lead the attack but he went missing.

 

Fortunately, Ishant took a fifer and did a respectable job for us. Shami is good but as a leader of attack, not sure he is even as good as Zaheer, Ishant or Srinath.

[Soumo]

1 hour ago, express bowling said:

Shami has been an amazing bowler in tests in Asia. One of the very best. 

 

And he has done really well in tests in Australia, WI and SA in the last 5 years.

 

He has 9 four wicket hauls too.  Fifers is not the only measure of success.

 

 

I think he is quite good in nz as well, that 5fer in nz( Hamilton maybe 2015) was one of his best performence , england isn't his strong suit though.

[Majestic]

2 minutes ago, Soumo said:

I think he is quite good in nz as well, that 5fer in nz( Hamilton maybe 2015) was one of his best performence , england isn't his strong suit though.

He doesn't have a 5-fer in NZ. Averages 35 in tests but you expect better than that. 35 in NZ conditions is acceptable for spinners but for pacers it needs to be much lower.

[zen]

Among the best Ind bowlers! 

[Clarke]

Looks lop sided depending on conditions. Avg of 47 in Eng is worse than what our spinners manage there.

 

 

 

[R!TTER]

17 minutes ago, Soumo said:

england isn't his strong suit though.

Not just Eng - NZ, SA, Eng in that order. On our last tour to SA he picked up wickets but mostly when the game was already beyond us, leaked lots of runs in crucial stages. BK, Ishant, Bumrah were better & more importantly consistent.

[Majestic]

3 minutes ago, R!TTER said:

Not just Eng - NZ, SA, Eng in that order. On our last tour to SA he picked up wickets but mostly when the game was already beyond us, leaked lots of runs in crucial stages. BK, Ishant, Bumrah were better & more importantly consistent.

A good all format bowler but in this setup, Zaheer and Srinath would have done better I think. Shami was averaging about 34-35 till 2015.

[Trichromatic]

9 minutes ago, Majestic said:

A good all format bowler but in this setup, Zaheer and Srinath would have done better I think. Shami was averaging about 34-35 till 2015.

 

Only Indian pacer to sustain pace (145+) even 10 years after debut.

[Majestic]

2 minutes ago, Trichromatic said:

 

Only Indian pacer to sustain pace (145+) even 10 years after debut.

He hardly bowls 140+ these days, let alone 145+. He is mostly in the level of 135-140 which is pretty good too but as I said, you would expect better from your leader of the attack. Although for only about 4-5 years period but Zaheer and Srinath both lead the attack brilliantly and so has Ishant but because of lower average, Shami is rated higher than them but he has got only 5 fifers in his career and has an away average of 31.

[Trichromatic]

5 minutes ago, Majestic said:

He hardly bowls 140+ these days, let alone 145+. He is mostly in the level of 135-140 which is pretty good too but as I said, you would expect better from your leader of the attack. Although for only about 4-5 years period but Zaheer and Srinath both lead the attack brilliantly and so has Ishant but because of lower average, Shami is rated higher than them but he has got only 5 fifers in his career and has an away average of 31.

 

Yadav and Shami are only pacers who can clock 150 after so long.

 

Shami is faster than Yadav nowadays.