Premier India pacer to turn out for Bengal in Ranji game, reigniting talk of a possible late entry into India’s Test squad in Australia
KOLKATA: India fast bowler Mohammed Shami is all set to play for Bengal in their next Ranji Trophy Elite Group ‘C’ game, putting to rest all speculation over his comeback plans after being left out of India’s squad for the five-Test series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia.
Bengal will take on Madhya Pradesh in Indore from Wednesday.
TOI has learnt that the 34-year-old pacer’s movements will be closely monitored by physio Nitin Patel, who has travelled with the Uttar Pradesh-born cricketer and will be stationed in Indore over the next four days.
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Shami’s fitness status was closely monitored ahead of India’s BGT squad announcement but captain Rohit Sharma‘s assertion that “we don’t want to take an undercooked Shami to Australia” was indication the team management was not fully convinced about the fast bowler’s Test-match recovery.
Shami, however, was positive he could take the flight to Australia after playing a few Ranji matches. He can, however, play only one red-ball game to prove his fitness because the Ranji Trophy season will be played in two halves.
In Shami’s absence, India picked a largely inexperienced pace attack – including Akash Deep, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Prasidh Krishna – to back up Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj. Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, and Khaleel Ahmed are in the reserves.
The Bengal team management has said the Indian cricket board (BCCI) has not issued any guidelines or restrictions on Shami. “We are happy to have him back,” Bengal coach Laxmi Ratan Shukla told TOI from Indore. “Shami was bowling at full throttle at the nets for some time and it will be good to see how he fares in a competitive match now.”
Shami met his Bengal teammates in Bengaluru after the team’s Ranji Trophy match against Karnataka last week. “He was keen to make a comeback at that time, saying that he was feeling fine,” Shukla stated.
Shami has been sidelined for a year with an ankle injury. His name did not feature in the initial Bengal squad list but he made a late entry after getting the necessary clearance on Monday night from the National Cricket Academy (NCA), which had become almost his second home for the last six months as he rehabilitated from a surgery in February for an Achilles tendon injury which he carried into last year’s ODI World Cup.
In spite of not being at peak fitness, he ended up as the top wicket-taker in the World Cup with 24 scalps in seven matches.
Shami had made steady progress and last month announced that he was “100 per cent pain-free” after bowling with full run-up at the Chinnaswamy Stadium following the conclusion of the first Test between India and New Zealand. He has always maintained that “it’s better that I play one or two domestic matches before going to Australia”.
It was anticipated that Shami would be able to return in time for the red ball in Test cricket has been quite phenomenal,” Ponting said.
“You talk to all the players that face him as well, they talk about how hard and difficult he is. And then, when you think about where the first two Tests are (in Perth and Adelaide), he’d be perfectly suited to bowling in those conditions. So, I think that’s the only real chink in India’s armour,” Ponting said.
It remains to be seen if Shami will get on the flight to Australia if he performs well for Bengal.
