'Mysterious' Shamsi makes strong impact

When South Africa’s Tabraiz Shamsi was included as a replacement for the injured West Indies leg-spinner Samuel Badree in the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad, there was an air of mystery around the left-arm chinaman bowler.

“Meet our new mysterious spinner. He is very successful with what he’s done in the past couple of years, so look out for a lot of mystery balls in there,” RCB coach Allan Donald had said about the youngster on the franchise’s official website last week. Filling in the big shoes of Badree, Shamsi has got off to a decent start in his maiden IPL journey.

Though the 26-year-old has picked up only two wickets in as many games, he hasn’t been an easy target for the batsmen. His economical bowling comes as a huge relief for a team which has been struggling to find its range and rhythm in the bowling department. His figures of 1/36 and 1/21 in the games against Rising Puner Supergiants and Gujarat Lions respectively played important roles in the context of the matches.

Against Pune, Shamsi broke a solid stand between Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ajinkya Rahane by having the latter stumped. Against Gujarat on Sunday, Shamsi got the better of a dangerous-looking Brendon McCullum, when he dismissed the Kiwi batsman caught and bowled.

So what makes him a tough challenge for the batsmen? “You need to ask the batsmen that,” laughed Shamsi after the Sunday’s game.

Shamsi though went on to describe how Australian veteran Brad Hogg has played a vital role in his learning process. “I watch Brad Hogg a lot, as there are not many left-arm chinaman bowlers in the game right now. He is 45 years old and is vastly experienced. Me being a youngster, I learn a lot from him,” said Shamsi.

Hailing from Johannesburg, Shamsi has picked up 272 wickets in 68 first-class matches at an average of 24.90. Shamsi attributed his learnings to country-mate Imran Tahir.

“I am quite close to Imran Tahir and he being a leg-spinner helps me a lot. He speaks a lot to me about my bowling and if I can be half as good as these guys I can be pretty good.”    

Shamsi, who experienced a successful Caribbean Premier League last year by being the highest wicket-taker for his team St Kitts and Nevis Patriots with 11 scalps from 7 games, said that he is happy to be in the RCB squad.

“I got many calls and couple of my family members messaged me saying thankfully you need not face Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Shane Watson. I think I am in a good position at the moment as there aren’t any batsmen as good as these guys in the other teams.”

After a promising start, a lot more will be expected from Shamsi and it remains to be seen if he lives up to those demands.