India’s Mohammed Shami celebrates the dismissal of Bangladesh’s Mehidy Hasan Miraz during the ICC Champions Trophy cricket match between India and Bangladesh at Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
IND vs BAN Champions Trophy 2025: Only Mitchell Starc has done it faster. That’s the sort of elite company Mohammed Shami has kept as he reached an impressive milestone of 200 One Day International wickets during the ICC Champions Trophy clash between India and Bangladesh in Dubai on Thursday. In doing so, Shami became the fastest Indian bowler to get to the milestone in terms of matches played, comfortably smashing the record held by Ajit Agarkar who did so in 133 matches.
The right-arm pacer is now eighth Indian bowler to reach the milestone in men’s ODIs. He also became the joint second fastest to do so alongside Pakistan legend Saqlain Mushtaq. The record in men’s ODIs belongs to Mitchell Starc who achieved the feat in 102 matches. He didn’t stop there as Shami picked up a five-for, and celebrated it by pointing both arm raised to the sky as his teammates got around to embrace him. It was Shami’s 60th ODI wicket in an ICC event, again the most by an Indian bowler as he went past Zaheer Khan’s tally of 59.
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Shami had been out of action from international cricket after the 2023 ODI World Cup final on November 2019 until recently making a comeback. In Jasprit Bumrah’s absence, onus was on Shami at the Champions Trophy and he struck in the very first over of the match to remove Soumya Sarkar who was caught behind by KL Rahul. He struck again in his first spell, to dismiss Mehidy Hasan Miraz caught sharply by Shubman Gill at slip. Shami’s 200th was the partnership-breaking wicket as he had Jaker Ali caught by Virat Kohli. With an offcutter, he had Tanzim Hasan Sakib playing on to the stumps. Shami’s fifth was Taskim Ahmed who was caught at deep midwicket.
“All we wanted with Shami was to get back wearing that India colours more than anything else. Whether he gets wickets or not that was completely immaterial for us at that point. We wanted him to get back to playing for India,” captain Rohit Sharma had said before the match. And he’s done that. And whatever I’ve seen of him so far looks perfectly fine, absolutely fine. When you talk about a bowler like Shami who’s done the job over the years so many times for us – for them, it’s just about getting back to their rhythm and hopefully he can find some rhythm early on in this tournament and help the team.
The journey back hasn’t been easy on Shami. “From being in great form during the World Cup to suddenly finding myself needing an operation — it was really difficult,” Shami told ICC in a pre-match video. “My first question to the doctor was, ‘How many days until I can be back on the field?’ He told me, ‘The priority is let’s get you to walk. Then, jog. Then, run. Competitive cricket is still a distant goal’.”
