Mohammad Shami played a brilliant innings to take Team India to pole position in the first Test against Australia at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur on Saturday.
The hosts started the day at 321/7. Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel tried to pull off the previous day’s performance but Jadeja was out quickly on 70. But the Shami-Axar combination took India to the lead they wanted and it should be noted that India currently have a lead of 223 runs.
It is worth noting that Shami’s 37 runs were achieved by attacking the spinners. Shami’s innings is the turning point in today’s Indian lead. Shami’s presence also helped Axer play a classical innings like Jadeja did yesterday.
No one will question the class of a batsman named Kohli. It should also be noted that no one in the world can play some of the shots he plays better than him. He has that class even in hitting sixes. Kohli does not have the style of hitting sixes all over the ground.
So Kohli is far behind in comparison to the Sixers, especially in Tests. Fast bowler Shami has thus already broken a record of Kohli. That means Shami currently has more sixes than Kohli.
Kohli has 24 sixes in 178 Test innings while Shami has 25 sixes in 85 Test innings. Shami’s innings today was a proof that the Indian tail-end style has changed, which used to be the same come and go. Earlier, Shami had played a similar innings against England.
In any case, a section of fans argue that Shami is a better batsman than Kohli when playing spin.