The Indian cricket team missed the services of pacer Mohammed Shami in the first Test of the series against South Africa as he received several injections during the 2023 ODI World Cup and is suffering from a chronic heel problem. This was revealed by Shami’s former Bengal teammate in a recent interaction with PTI.

Mohammed Shami had a blast in the ODI World Cup 2023 and picked up 24 wickets in 11 matches. He took three five-wicket hauls, the most memorable of which was against New Zealand, where he finished the game with seven wickets.

Mohammed Shami was rested for the white-ball tour against South Africa and was supposed to join the team in the red-ball series. However, he was not fit to play the series and was later ruled out.

Revealing about Mohammed Shami’s heel problem, his former Bengal teammate, while speaking to PTI, he stated that Shami received several injections during CWC 2023 due to heel pain. His teammate also added that as a player ages, the injury recovery time increases.

Mohammed Shami’s teammate reveals about his injury

He said in an interaction with PTI, “Shami has a chronic problem in his left heel. Many people don’t know that he took regular injections during the World Cup and played the entire tournament in pain. But you have to understand that as you get older, recovery from each major problem or injury takes longer.”

Mohammed Shami has been India’s star player in the ODI and Test format and has taken wickets whenever the team has needed them. Shami’s bowling has become lethal day by day and the opposition batsmen have found it difficult to play him.

Mohammed Shami was not part of the Indian team for the first four games as they had the right team balance thanks to Hardik Pandya. However, after Pandya was injured during the match against Bangladesh, Shami got a fifer in his first match against New Zealand and also swept the Sri Lankan batting line-up in the same tournament.

The Indian team scored 397 runs against New Zealand in the first semi-final of the ODI World Cup 2023 and at one point the Kiwis were chasing the target quite well.

The Indian team desperately needed a wicket and it was Mohammed Shami who got back-to-back wickets and thus scripted India’s victory.

Coming back to the first IND vs SA test match, Team India brought in Prasidh Krishna in place of Mohammed Shami but he couldn’t leave any impact and leaked a lot of runs.

In the end, India ended up losing the match by an innings and 32 runs and their dream of winning a Test series in South Africa remained a dream once again.

The second Test match of the series will be played at the Sahara Park Newlands in Cape Town and the Indian team will want to end the tour with a victory.