Mohammed Shami has turned out to be a huge asset this ICC Men's Cricket World Cup season. By now, everyone knows that he is there in the team because, as an author put it, of an "arbitrary twist of history". Had Hardik Pandya not injured himself, we might have missed Shami's iconic bowling spell, especially in the crucial Semi-Final match against New Zealand.
Shami's accidental inclusion after Pandya's inevitable exit has been used as a stick to beat the selectors and skipper Rohit Sharma. "Shami was not part of India's playing XI. He was lucky to replace an injured player. What does this say of those who select the team?" a sports journalist wrote.
Fans, however, are coming to the defence of the selectors and Sharma. "The same guys who 'select the team' brought in SKY, persisted with Iyer and KL Rahul and the captain did a wholesale change of his own batting style. Perhaps a case of real decision-making, where one makes five and good guys get 3-4 right?" tweeted Somnath Mukherjee. "Never before in the history of ODI cricket has an Indian team been this dominant throughout the tournament. But some have to dig deep to find faults," wrote a Twitter user.
