He wanted to 'quit cricket': Bharat Arun reveals how a meeting with Ravi Shastri changed Mohammed Shami's fate

Over the years, Mohammed Shami has established himself as one of the most consistent pacers India have ever produced, but 2018 was a difficult period for the 32-year-old, dealing with injury setbacks and battling personal demons. Ahead of India’s tour of England the same year, Shami even failed a fitness test, eventually losing his place in the Indian team. Former India bowling coach Bharat Arun recently revealed how Shami, from almost deciding to call it quits from professional cricket roared back to form and now features regularly in the Indian setup. “Just before the 2018 tour of England, we had a fitness test and Shami had failed it. He lost his place in the Indian team. He called me and said he wanted to have a word with me. So I invited him to my room; he was going through a personal turmoil. His fitness was affected, mentally he was gone. He came to me and said ‘I am very angry and I want to quit cricket’," Arun was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz. He went onto recall how Shami’s meeting with then India head coach Ravi Shastri made the pacer rethink his decision. “I immediately took Shami to meet Ravi Shastri. We both went up to his room and I said ‘Ravi, Shami wants to say something’. Ravi asked what it was and Shami told him the same thing that ‘I don’t want to play cricket’. Both of us asked ‘What will you do if not play cricket?’ What else do you know? You know how to bowl when given the ball,” said the 60-year-old Arun. After being dropped from the Team India squad, Delhi speedster Navdeep Saini had replaced Shami in the squad. Arun said that Ravi Shastri had decided to send Shami to the National Cricket Academy (NCA), instead of his hometown for further rehabilitation. “So Ravi said ‘It’s good that you’re angry. This is the best thing that has happened to you because you have a ball in hand. Your fitness is poor. Whatever anger it is that you have, take it out on your body. We are going to send you to National Cricket Academy and want you to go there for 4 weeks and stay there. You will not go home, and only head to NCA. It suited Shami also because he had a problem going to Kolkata then so he spent 5 weeks at the NCA," he added. Shami missed the one-off Test against Afghanistan in 2018, but regained fitness ahead of the Test series in England, and was recalled back into the side. Shami went onto play all five Tests in that series, where he scalped 16 wickets, ending up as the fourth-highest wicket-taker in the series. India, however, lost that Test series 4-1. Till date, Shami has played 61 Tests for India, and has taken 219 wickets. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.