Indian wickets always have enough for pacers: Shami

NEW DELHI: Spinners are always expected to dominate in India but the most successful bowler on the opening day of the second Test against Australia, Mohammed Shami, believes that the home conditions also offer enough help to the pacers.

Shami ended with a four-wicket haul to help India limit Australia to 263. Spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin picked up three wickets each.

At the start of the innings, Shami relentlessly targeted the good length area that helped him get rid of David Warner. Towards the end of the innings, Shami got the ball to reverse swing and ended up cleaning the tail with the wickets of Nathan Lyon and debutant Matthew Kuhnemann.

“There is not a lot of difference you see with wickets in India. If you can get help with the new ball and can get the old ball to reverse... As a fast bowler, the main thing in Indian conditions is the area you bowl in and you have to maintain pace all along.

“The pitch here is not much different from Nagpur though runs were coming for Australia (in the morning session). But I tried to bowl in the right areas,” said Shami in a media interaction after the close of play.

The likes of Shami and Mohammed Siraj have been equally lethal in home conditions. The 32-year-old from Amroha put the pacers’ success in India down to their toil in domestic cricket.