Mohammed Shami puts on a show amidst national selection snub showdown: ₹10 cr LSG trade comes back to haunt SRH

The bare numbers were damaging enough. Shami completed his four overs at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium with 2 for 9 and an economy rate of 2.25. He removed Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head, two wickets that helped reduce SRH to 8 for 2 and then fed into a larger collapse that left them at 31 for 4 after 9 overs. The powerplay produced only 22 runs, a startling slowdown for a side built around early aggression.

That matters because Mohammed Shami’s only season with SRH had been poor by both cost and output. He played 9 matches in IPL 2025, taking only 6 wickets. His bowling average was 56.16 and his economy rate 11.23, figures that suggested he was neither striking often enough nor controlling scoring phases. At one point last season, he also recorded 0 for 75 against the Punjab Kings, the second-most expensive spell in IPL history. SRH’s decision to move on, on form alone, was understandable.

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Shami’s spell also stood apart within the innings itself. At the point he finished, no other LSG bowler who had completed an over was close to his control. Digvesh Singh Rathi had 1 for 10 in 2 overs, Prince Yadav 1 for 1 in 1 over, Avesh Khan 0 for 4 in 1, and Manimaran Siddharth 0 for 7 in 1. Shami did not merely strike early; he choked the scoring rate so hard that every other wicket began to feel reachable.

There was also a layer of irony in the method. Last year, SRH saw a version of Shami who leaked runs and rarely controlled an innings. Here, on the same franchise’s home ground, LSG got the exact opposite: a senior fast bowler who used the new ball to take out two left-handers, deny release shots, and drag the opposition deep into a hole before the innings had settled.

That is what makes this a haunting trade subplot for SRH. They let go of a bowler who had failed for them last year, and on this evidence, LSG may have acquired exactly the version of Shami that SRH thought they were buying in the first place.

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