Shami also rubbished the allegations made by former Pakistan players during the ODI World Cup. These players had claimed that the fast bowler was provided with a modified ball containing an embedded chip.
“Pakistanis were never happy with us and will never be – someone said we are being given a different ball, someone said there is a chip in the ball.I have previously mentioned that if I ever get an opportunity or a platform in the future, I would definitely like to open the ball and show whether there is any device inside or not. If your bowlers do swing & reverse swing then it is skill, if we do then, we are tampering with ball & chip on the ball,” Shami said on Shubhankar Mishra’s YouTube channel.
In response to Inzamam’s allegations, Shami expressed his disapproval and urged them to refrain from deceiving the public with such outlandish claims.
“Jo unke against perform karegi team wo wahan par target hoti hain. Manlo maine device se ball daal diya aur button ulta dab gaya. Maine inswing daal but outswing ho gayi toh chauka ho jayega. Ye cartoon giri kahin aur chal sakti hai, yeh public ko bewakoof banane wali baate hain,” Shami said. (The team that performs against them gets targeted there. Suppose I bowled with the device and pressed the button incorrectly. I intended to bowl an inswinger but it turned into an outswinger, resulting in a boundary. This kind of cartoonish behavior can happen elsewhere; these are just ways to fool the public).
“Arshdeep Singh, when he was bowling the 15th over, the ball was reversing. Is it too early (for reverse swing) with the new ball? This means the ball was ready for reverse swing by the 12th or the 13th over. Umpires should keep their eyes open (to spot) these things…If it was Pakistani bowlers (reverse swinging the ball) this would have been a big issue. We know reverse swing very well and if Arshdeep can come in the 15th over and start reversing the ball, it means some serious work had been done before,” Inzamam had said on Pakistani news channel.
Shami, who has returned to bowling in the nets after being out of action since the ODI World Cup due to ankle injury, also revealed his best friends within the Indian cricket team during the conversation.
“Virat Kohli and Ishant Sharma are my Best friends. They are the ones who call me and check me when I am injured and in recovery,” Shami said.