Australia all-rounder Cooper Connolly has lauded Mohammed Shami mentioning him as a ‘World-class player’ while reliving his face-off with the star India pacer during the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy.
With Australia having lost Matthew Short to injury ahead of the CT semi-finals, the team management saw Connolly slot in as the opener besides Travis Head. With Connolly was dismissed by Mohammed Shami, the former went on to pick the wicket of Rohit Sharma in India’s chase.
“As a kid, you always want to represent your country and to walk out there in a semi-final was an unbelievable experience and I’ll take a lot of learnings from it,” said Connolly.
“Shami is a world-class player for a reason. He’s played a lot of cricket. In the end, it was a great game of cricket and I think we took a lot of learnings as a group from that,” added Cooper Connolly.
With India embarked on their chase of 265, Connolly came close to sending Rohit Sharma back in the hut in the second over but could not hold onto his catch.
“It’s the game of cricket. You’re going to miss out, you’re going to drop a catch – you’ve got to get on with what’s in front of you,” Connolly said.
“That (drop off Rohit) was completely out of my mind by the time I was bowling. I was just trying to compete as much as I could and hopefully get a breakthrough for the team,” Cooper Connolly added.
Before heading into the Champions Trophy, Cooper Connolly made his test debut for Australia on the tour of Sri Lanka as well, another moment he will cherish forever.
“Getting my Baggy Green and then to play a game in the Champions Trophy, it was a dream come true … hopefully there’s plenty more to come,” Connolly said.
The 21 year old has played one test, four ODIs and two T20Is in his career so far and was also named KFC BBL Player of the Tournament for scoring 351 runs and taking six wickets in the season for Perth Scorchers.
He will return to action in the Sheffield Shield match between Western Australia against Victoria from March 15 in Perth.
