“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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