India, Nov. 7 -- If wrists could sing, Mohammed Shami's seam bowling would have been a ballad. And it had to be with the red ball, because only that allows the entire experience of Shami - the swing, the reverse swing, change of pace, the bouncer out of nowhere, every kind of ball imaginable, really. Above all, an artist with the ball, protecting the seam, feverishly maintaining the shine before the two collaborated to remunerate Shami. "His seam kisses the pitch. He doesn't bang it in," Wasim Akram once said about Shami.

Shami brought even flat pitches to life. With scruffed up, battered balls, Shami could wake you up from post-lunch siestas with his seam movement. Then there was his pace, rarely dropping below 135 kph, almost always hu...