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Umesh Kumar, close friend of Team India pacer Mohammed Shami, recently recounted a harrowing incident from 2018 involving a severe car accident near Dehradun. Kumar vividly described how Shami sustained serious injuries, including a bleeding face, during the early morning crash on their journey from Dehradun to Delhi.
Despite the adversity, Shami, determined to resume his cricket commitments, underwent treatment that included receiving four stitches to his head. Remarkably, he made a swift recovery and swiftly returned to the field shortly thereafter.
During an interview on journalist Shubhankar Mishra’s YouTube channel, Umesh Kumar recounted their trip to Dehradun with Mohammed Shami for a few days. He revealed that their return journey turned into a harrowing experience when their car collided with a truck, an incident that Kumar emphasized brought them perilously close to death.
“Shami had gotten a clean chit and we decided to go to Dehradoon. We saw death very closely that night. We reached Dehradoon, stayed there, practiced at a stadium, and were on our way back. We left around 5:30 AM in the morning. We fell asleep on the journey. Suddenly it felt as if the car was completely shattered. By the time we could control ourselves, Shami’s face was bleeding and he was injured badly. There was a lot of blood,” Umesh said.
In the podcast, Umesh Kumar shared that he and Mohammed Shami initiated the establishment of four community kitchens amidst the COVID-19 lockdown. According to Kumar, these kitchens served meals to approximately 30,000 to 35,000 individuals daily. He highlighted that Shami, inspired by the plight of impoverished people shown on television, was driven by a strong desire to provide assistance during those challenging times.
Mohammed Shami recounted how the truck driver tried to flee the scene following the accident. He mentioned that the driver went as far as striking their escort vehicle in an attempt to escape.
“A truck hit our car from the front. The truck hit from the front indicator and tore the side of the car to the rear indicator. The most dangerous thing was that while trying to escape, the truck driver even hit our escort car. When our car got imbalanced and went off-road, there was a transformer within two meters of distance. There was a ditch on one side and a transformer in the front,” Shami said.
Mohammed Shami underwent Achilles tendon surgery in February and has been sidelined since the 2023 ODI World Cup, where India lost to Australia in the final match held in Ahmedabad. The 33-year-old right-arm pacer is anticipated to make his comeback during the Test series against Bangladesh scheduled for September.
Having represented India in 64 Tests, 101 ODIs, and 23 T20Is, Shami boasts a total of 449 wickets across all international formats. The Indian team management is optimistic about his recovery, aiming for his availability for the upcoming five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia later this year.
