Mohammed Shami may join the Indian test squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He’s ready to play for Bengal in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group ‘C’ match against Madhya Pradesh.
Shami will be eager to prove his fitness in this game. According to TOI, physio Nitin Patel will be present with Shami and he’ll closely monitor the pacer’s movements and fitness.
Earlier, reports were that Shami was to return to the Indian squad in the series against Bangladesh. Then, the update was that he’ll return in the last series against New Zealand.
But it has taken Shami longer than expected to return to the national side. His last appearance for India was back in November 2023 in the ICC World Cup final against Australia.
As per the Bengal team management, BCCI has not issued any restrictions on the pacer’s workload. Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Bengal’s coach said, “We are happy to have him back. Shami was bowling at full throttle at the nets for some time. It’ll be good to see how he fares in a competitive match now”.
Mohammed Shami eager to prove his fitness
Shami earlier said that he was confident of proving his fitness to be in the squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. But after assessing his fitness during that time, skipper Rohit Sharma said that they don’t want to take an undercooked Shami to Australia.
Shami bowled 10 overs in the game against Madhya Pradesh. He conceded 34 runs and went wicketless. He bowled the most number of overs for Bengal at the end of the first day.
In Shami’s absence, India has a rather inexperienced pace attack except for Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj. The likes of Akash Deep, Harshit Rana and Prasidh Krishna are on their first tour down under. The travelling reserves have Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini and Khaleel Ahmed.
