Mohammed Shami Finally Responds to Angry Indians on Performance Against Pakistan

Last year in October, Pakistan defeated arch-rivals India by 10 wickets in T20 World Cup held in the United Arab Emirates. Cricket fans in India criticized their team for their poor performance but Muslim cricketer, Mohammed Shami, got the most hate.

After the loss, thousands of hate messages flooded social media, including Shami’s Instagram account, calling the pacer a traitor and leveling allegations that he had taken money to lose the game. In his first comments since being subjected to online abuse, the right-arm pacer slammed trolls, saying they are neither true cricket fans nor real Indians.

While talking in an interview with the Indian Express, the 31 years old pacer said that those who trolled him were neither “real fans nor were they real Indians”.

“When people with unknown social media profiles or even one with a few followers point fingers at someone, they don’t have anything to lose,” Shami added.

The right-arm pacer who took nine wickets in his first Test match, the most by an Indian fast bowler on debut, said that nothing is at stake for these people because they are nobody, and no one needs to interact with them. “For them, nothing is at stake because they are nobodies  we don’t need to engage with them.”

He further added that he as a Muslim does not need any loyalty certificate from anyone. “We know what we are, we don’t need to say what India means to us because we represent the country and fight for the country. So we don’t need to prove anything to anyone by saying or reacting to such trolls”, Shami added.

Shami has represented team India in both red and white-ball cricket and he has been an integral part of India’s pace attack since his debut in 2013. Shami has taken 209 wickets in 57 Test matches at an average of 27.12. He has taken 148 wickets in 79 ODIs at an average of 25.62.