Shami is more English than most of the England bowlers – Steve Harmison

Steve Harmison has stated that Indian pacer Mohammed Shami is more English than most of England bowlers and his partnership with Ishant Sharma is lethal. Harmison said that Shami is similar to him and Matthew Hoggard.

“Shami I think is more English than some of the seamers that we’ve got in our team because he runs up, he’s got great core strength, a big backside, a bit like Matthew Hoggard and my time. We used to have big backsides, could really swing it away in and around off stump and I think Shami is a fine, fine bowler,” Harmison told ESPNCricinfo.

“With that, you’ve got somebody like Ishant who is 6 foot or 4 and Shami who is about 5 foot 10. One is bringing the ball back in, the other is taking it away. They complement each other a lot,” he added.

According to him, Ishant is Virat’s go to man in Test format.

“You’ve got a tall bowler in Ishant who likes to get the ball going in naturally and because he has such a nice seam position, he can at times roll his fingers a little bit and get the ball to nip away. So, that way, he’s very, very dangerous because you can be doubtful about where your off stump is. That’s why he is Virat’s go-to man as he can give him a lot of overs,” Harmison said.