India’s veteran wicket-keeper bat Dinesh Karthik has revealed that experienced batters such as Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma hate facing Mohammed Shami in the net sessions. Karthik said Shami is relentless in the practice sessions and breathes down the neck of all the batters.

Shami is well known for his upright seam position and he is always right on the money with his line and length. Meanwhile, Shami rattled David Warner’s stumps in the first innings of the opening Test match against Australia at the VCA Stadium, Nagpur, which India won by an innings and 132 runs.

Furthermore, Shami returned with 2-13 in the second innings to deliver the goods for the team. Karthik admitted that Shami is the toughest bowler he has faced in his career.

“If I have to use one word for Shami it will be ‘Torture Shami’. Because in my whole career, he is the toughest bowler I have faced in the nets, he has got me out a couple of times as well in the match. But he has been nasty to play in the nets. I thought I was the only one so then I asked Kohli, Rohit, and they are all legends of the game and they all said they hate playing Shami,” Karthik told Cricbuzz.

Karthik added that Shami’s accurate line and length make him a tough bowler to face in the nets.

“What makes him so special is – all of his strength come into play in net session, his upright seam position, his natural length, that nasty length of 6-8 metre mark, where the two major modes of dismissals are caught behind or caught at slip. And you can see why he has been unlucky over a period of time as well because that length says that he gets the batsman beaten numerous times but never gets that wicket,” Karthik said.

Mohammed Shami has been performing consistently and he is going to hold the key in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah.

The second Test match between these two teams will be played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi from Friday onwards.