Mohammed Shami’s fitness to be monitored by national selector, NCA team 

by Sahil Jain
Mohammed Shami

The wait around Mohammed Shami continues. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) want to be fully certain before they take a call on whether to add him to India’s squad for the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. 

There have been multiple reports that Shami is likely to join the Indian side in Australia soon. However, the BCCI want to ensure that the Bengal fast bowler is back to full fitness. They want to see if he can handle the workloads and intensity of a Test match.  

According to Cricbuzz, a BCCI Sports Science team along with a national selector have travelled to Rajkot where Shami is currently stationed with the Bengal team for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT). Nitin Patel who is the head of the BCCI’s Sports Science department, trainer Nishant Bardule and SS Das who is a part of the national selection committee are present in Rajkot to monitor Shami’s fitness. 

The 34-year-old fast bowler could not recover in time from his ankle injury which kept him out of action for a year. He was expected to return at some point during India’s home season where they played Bangladesh and New Zealand. However, his rehabilitation was not as straightforward as it seems and his comeback was delayed.  

Thus, he was not a part of the initial squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. It was in mid-November that Shami made a comeback to competitive cricket. He featured in Bengal’s fifth Ranji Trophy game of the season which was against Madhya Pradesh. He bowled 43.2 overs across two innings and took seven wickets

Having played just one red-ball game, the selectors wanted him to prove his match fitness further. Thus, he is currently playing the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. While playing T20 matches may not get him ready for a Test series, it could help him build his match fitness and intensity with which he bowls. He has played four matches and has taken four wickets at an economy of 9.74.  

In addition to this, Shami has been asked to bowl a certain number of overs every day. The team in Rajkot have assigned clear instructions and drills to Shami before and after the game. The chief selector and the team management who are currently in Australia are constantly in the loop. They are being informed about the experienced pacer’s development.

According to a report on Cricbuzz, it is learnt that the selectors want Shami to play a few more games before they take a final decision on his participation in the Test series in Australia. Bengal have three more group-stage encounters remaining. It’s likely that Shami could play at least a couple of those games.

Shami could join the Indian team after second Test

Shami’s childhood coach Mohammed Badruddin had revealed that the Bengal fast bowler would be flying to Australia after the second Test in Adelaide.

He will be joining the Indian team after the Adelaide (second) Test. Now that he is back, proved his fitness, picked up wickets, he will be crucial for the team in the second half of the tour,” Badruddin was quoted saying to Indian Express a couple of weeks ago. 

India are currently playing a pink-ball warm-up game against Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra. The second Test starts on the 6th of December in Adelaide and it is a day-night fixture. It remains to be seen if Shami joins the squad for the last three Tests. 

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