Despite success, Shamsi won’t talk himself up for Test place

TMG Digital

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

OTHER bowlers on the fringes of selection who take five wickets before a big match would be marking out their run-ups in anticipation of a call-up.

So, with the first Test starting in Galle on Thursday, you would think Tabraiz Shamsi rates as better than average his chances of adding to the debut he earned in Adelaide in November 2016.

But the left-arm wrist spinner did a good job of curbing his enthusiasm in the wake of claiming 5/45 in the South Africans’ tour match in Colombo at the weekend.

“We don’t play two spinners often but it depends on the conditions,” Shamsi told reporters in Colombo.

“There’s no gaurantee that I will play but if I get an opportunity I’ll try my best.

“Whoever does play, I’ve got full confidence they will do a great job.”

Shamsi’s reticence to talk himself up could be a case of good manners.

Or it could be informed by Ottis Gibson’s assertion that whether South Africa pick a second spinner to partner left-armer Keshav Maharaj in Galle will be guided by what the conditions tell them — not by the received orthodoxy of deploying more than one slow bowler in the sub-continent.

“You always have a responsibility, whether you’re playing as the only spinner or as one of two guys,” Shamsi said of how being one of two tweakers might affect his approach.

“You always have to do a good job for the team. If anything it makes it easier for me because [Maharaj] has more experience than I do.

“There’s no pressure. We have a great attack that doesn’t rely on one person.”

In Colombo, Shamsi trapped three of his victims leg-before and bowled the other two, which indicates a bowler in command — no possible sixes that became catches in the deep for him.

“The chat was it was going to spin but this wicket was nice to bat on, which was a good challenge because it was nice to bowl in tougher conditions,” he said.

Galle, though, has a reputation for helping slow poisoners, who own 19 of the best 20 sets of figures at a ground where no fast bowler has yet claimed more than five wickets in an innings.

Surely he was looking forward to the prospect of bowling there?

“You could take wickets on a flat pitch and then don’t perform on a spinning wicket and don’t perform as well,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter what sort of pitch you bowl on; you need to make sure your execution is on point on the day.”

But Shamsi didn’t hide his excitement at being part of an apparently growing band of left-arm wrist spinners who are revitalising teams around the world.

“Variations help you as a bowler because they put doubt in the batsman’s mind,” he said.

“We have more variation than finger spinners and batsmen don’t practise much against us.”

Then he remembered his manners: “But that doesn’t count for much if you don’t execute.”