“Yeah it certainly has felt like I’m dreaming”, exclaims rookie South African spinner Tabraiz Shamsi ahead of his debut tour to the Caribbean in national colours in an exclusive chat with Sportskeeda.
Eyes filled with excitement, a tone trying hard to hide his childlike glee, the 26-year-old is a picture of calm excitement as he reminisces about his past struggles, the days of hard work and toil which ultimately has borne fruit as he found in the place in the Proteas’ squad of 15 which is scheduled to play a Tri Series, featuring West Indies and Australia.
The journey which began his dream
“My life has totally changed in the last twelve months, from almost giving up cricket completely a couple of years back due to lack of opportunity and game time at the Dolphins, to now being picked for South Africa is a truly unreal feeling”, says the chinaman bowler, who, in his initial days of domestic cricket found it difficult to get a place in the Dolphins team, a franchise which represents the KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa.
Deciding to move back up country in 2013-2014 was a career defining moment for Shamsi. Not only was he signed by Easters and the Titans, he was also backed by a wonderful support staff, which helped him get his cricket dream back on track.
“Well, I think the most important thing for any player is getting backed by your coach and team and for me I did not have that for my time I spent at the Dolphins in KZN because I was not getting much game time.
“I'm really thankful to the Titans coaching staff for believing in me and giving me an opportunity to play as well as always pushing me to get better and better each day and that has been the biggest difference for me in the last twelve months.”
However, even though joining Titans gave him a leap spring as far as achieving his aspirations were concerned, it was Grant Morgan, his coach in Gauteng Strikers in 2009-2010, who made him believe in his own skills.
Emphasising on the importance of a dedicated coach in every youngster’s life, Shamsi did not hesitate to credit Morgan after his name was announced in the 15-member South African squad. “Grant Morgan has had a massive impact on my career! He was the first coach who believed in my talent and gave me my first opportunity to play first class cricket. So he basically put the wheels in motion of my career.”
From a pacer to a Chinaman bowler
Like all South African youngsters, Shamsi too started out as a pace bowler only to change his technique on the insistence of his coaches in the training camps. “I was actually a fast bowler until high school but I was not quick enough so the coaches turned me into a spinner.”
Faced with the choice of either converting into an off-spinner or a leg spinner, the bowler gives an insight into his psyche when he answers, “I chose left arm chinaman instead of being an off-spinner was because they said leg spin is harder to bowl and I did not want to take the easy option and start bowling off spin just because it was easier. Even though it was difficult, my motivation in life was to not take the easy option in life!”
While most youngsters in the present era prefer taking the oft-tread easier path to success, Shamsi, right from his early days, believed in the more difficult walk towards stardom; a trait amply displayed by the fact that he opted to choose an art which was unique and tougher for the batsmen to face. He polished his skills by watching replays of Australian legend Shane Warne as he spun his way to glory.
“I used to closely watch Shane Warne while growing up because in my opinion he was the greatest leg spinner ever. More recently I started watching a lot of Saeed Ajmal's bowling too because his stock ball spins the ball into the right-handers just like mine so I tried to watch and learn from his bowling and see how he dominated the batsmen.”
His journey from the CPL to the IPL
Although he had an impressive season for the Easterns in 2013-14, wherein he picked up 47 wickets at an impressive average of 20.02, he only gained a strong foothold in the cricketing arena after Marlon Samuels noticed his skills in 2014, during a tour match in the Rainbow Nation.
With West Indies touring South Africa, Shamsi was included in the SA Invitation XI team which took on the West Indies. The left-hander picked up 3 wickets and adequately impressed Samuels, following which he got signed up by St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots in the Caribbean Premier League last year.
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Playing in the CPL, which hosted more international players than the Ram Slam T20 tournament in South Africa, was a turning point for the bowler. Coached by Eric Simons, Shamsi went on to pick 11 wickets in seven games for his franchise, at an impressive average of 13.27, ending as the fifth highest wicket taker in the tournament.
Riding on his experience, Shamsi proved to be the biggest match winner for the Titans in their domestic season, picking up 41 wickets at 19.97, helping his team clinch the Sunfoil Series, the most important first-class cricket competition in South Africa. Even though he snatched only nine wickets in the Ram Slam T20 in 2015-16, his economy rate of just over seven helped Titans to their second title of the season.
It was then that the surprising call-up to play in the Indian Premier League came his way. Ignored in the IPL auctions earlier this year, Shamsi was called up to play for Royal Challengers Bangalore after Samuel Badree was ruled out due to injury. ”The RCB call up was a complete shock!”
“I was not picked up in the IPL auction earlier in the year and we had just got done with our South African domestic season. So I was finally on holidays and I was enjoying spending some time back home when I got the call from RCB. In less than twenty-four hours I was in India and in less than two days from when I got the call in SA, I was playing my first IPL match, so it was a very crazy experience for me.”
Stuff dreams are made of, isn’t it?
“It’s very hard to hear the captain or your teammates in India in front of the huge crowd.”
Describing his experience in India as a once in a lifetime opportunity, Shamsi feels privileged to play under the reigns of Virat Kohli and under the coaching of Daniel Vettori and Allan Donald, the head coach and bowling coach of RCB, respectively.
Defining Kohli as a great leader who always leads from the front, the left-hander is in awe of Donald, with whom he is working with for the first time.
Shamsi’s arrival in India was met with a tweet from Donald, whereby he described the former as a mystery bowler who was capable of rattling the opposition on a given day. However, Shamsi begs to differ, stating, “I don't see myself as a mystery spinner. I am just working hard and trying to do my best every single time I play.”
“I believe there is no substitute for hard work and no matter how much cricket you have played you have to keep on developing and coming up with new game plans because batsmen keep finding different ways of scoring runs. The game keeps evolving and you have to keep working hard and evolve with it”, says the spinner, reemphasizing on his sole mantra that only hours of sweat will gain a cricketer a place in the record books for time immemorial.
Also read: Virat Kohli better than AB de Villiers: Shane Warne
Having picked up the wickets of batsmen like Ajinkya Rahane, Brendon McCullum and David Warner in the four games he played for RCB was pleasing for the youngster. “Yeah, those are some great batsmen who have performed outstandingly in international cricket for many years so to be able to get their wickets is quite pleasing.”
Criticised lately for his slump in form, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has earned brickbats all over for his inconsistency, stirred by the loss of his finishing prowess in the death overs. However, giving a deaf ear to all the faults, Shamsi feels that Dhoni still has it in him to do some serious damage if a bowler missed his mark, saying he was really looking forward to the contest between himself and the Indian skipper.
“I like to test myself so I was really looking forward to bowling to someone like MS Dhoni who is one of the best finishers in the game. To be bowling to him in an IPL T20 match under high pressure was a great test. I really enjoyed the challenge to know I was bowling to somebody who could do some serious damage if I missed my mark and that I have to be on the money every ball!
“You can only improve if you are put under pressure against the best and I want to keep on improving as much as I can every day.”
The Caribbean tourney with the South African national side
Shamsi returned midway from the high-profile IPL to tour the Caribbean once again, this time as a national member of the senior South African team.
Agreeing that his experience of playing in the West Indies will help him this time around, Shamsi prefers to stay away from complacency, focusing on each game as it comes, preferring to start afresh in every match.
Although he has been picked at the back of impressive T20 performances, Shamsi refuses to dwell too much on the switch from the twenty over format to the fifty over one. “I don't think there is too much of a difference. Cricket has changed so much now that bowlers are always under pressure with batsmen attacking all the time, so in a way, bowling in an ODI has the same pressures of bowling in T20s if not even more due to only 4 fielders being allowed out on the boundary in the middle overs.”
Sharing his recipe for his plans of handling pressure on the big stage, the Indian origin Shamsi would prefer to keep it simple. “Well, there is always pressure on you, whether you are playing a small club cricket match or an IPL game. Obviously representing your country and playing for your nation brings about a lot more responsibility but it shouldn't be seen as pressure, rather as an honour and an opportunity to do well.”
The bus driver celebration: his way of having fun on the field!
After swaying to the dance moves of DJ Bravo, India got the hang of Shamsi’s ‘bus driver’ celebration, which was on full display after every wicket that was scalped by the South African.
The celebration, which requires hand movements like that of a steering wheel, was the bone of contention amidst a set of players, like David Warner and Adam Zampa, who advised Shamsi to focus on his game instead. Unwilling to change his method of expressing his excitement, the Titans’ bowler has a simple take on all his contemporaries.
“The Bus Driver was just a nickname that some of my teammates gave me and called me that because I turn the ball both ways like how a bus driver would turn the steering wheel.
“So that’s what the celebration is about, turning the steering wheel, changing gears and simply just having fun and enjoying yourself because there is a lot of pressure that is involved with our professional game. There is the pressure to perform and the pressure to do well.”
“People forget many times that deep down, there is a small child inside all of us that once fell in love with this beautiful game and that is why we started playing cricket in the first place. So I always want to have fun and enjoy myself on the field and play with a smile on my face for as long as I play”, ends the interview on a memorable note.
Well, not only him, but the viewers as well watch the game of cricket and engulf in its joys and sorrows for the very same reason. A small child inside us that enjoys the victories and complaints at the losses, whilst reveling in the atmosphere that the sport has to offer.
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