Mohammad Shami.
Mohammad Shami. Image Credit: X

The entire Indian side felt nervous when their premier fast bowler, Mohammad Shami, was seen to be in discomfort, having held his lower back while playing for the Bengal side against Madhya Pradesh in the currently processing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) 2024. The veteran has been featured in the domestic T20 competition.

The aim for the selection committee is to see the fitness status of Mohammad Shami after the latter’s back-to-back competitive game as the speculation has been around his potential return to the Indian side for any part of the recently started Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25.

The last international game for the right-arm fast bowler came during the final of last year’s ODI World Cup, while he last featured in a Test match was during the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2021-23 in June against Australia at the Kennington Oval in London.

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Mohammad Shami missed the action for nearly a year, having gone through a successful surgery which ruled him out of the five-match red-ball series at home against England, followed by the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 and the T20 World Cup 2024 in the United States of America and the West Indies.

Mohammad Shami shares picture to inform fitness status amid injury scare

The reports claimed that he could make his return for the five Tests at home for India against Bangladesh and New Zealand, but a fresh knee injury didn’t help in the process. The 34-year-old faced Madhya Pradesh in the fifth and last round of the Ranji Trophy 2024/25 at the Holkar Stadium in Indore.

The pacer was under the attention of Nitin Patel, the head of the Centre of Excellence’s medical panel of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). In the four T20s of the SMAT, Mohammad Shami has picked up only four wickets in around 16 overs with an economy rate of close to ten.

In the very final 20-over future in Saurashtra, against MP, the veteran pacer shared a photo of his legs while working in the gym.

“Strong legs, strong mind, strong body.” He wrote in the caption of the image. In the previous contest of the SMAT, the pacer conceded 38 runs in four overs, as the opponents experienced a six-wicket victory, having chased 190 runs with two balls to spare. In the game before that, he remained wicketless and was drilled for 46 runs in SMAT 2024.

Mohammad Shami has also recently enjoyed the IPL 2025 mega auction, where he was bought by the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for a price of INR 10 crore. The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) kept on fighting the Uttar Pradesh-born before the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) replaced the yellow army for a price of INR 8.50 core. The Knight Riders had almost sealed the deal before the SRH got the services of the pacer in their only bid.

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The veteran pacer picked up 48 wickets in his last two editions of the IPL during the 2023 and 2022 for Gujarat Titans (GT). Overall, he has collected 229 wickets in 122 innings at an average of under 28 and a strike rate of over 50 with the help of 12 four-wicket hauls and six five-wicket hauls at the best figure of 6/56.

The next game for Bengal is on December 01 against Meghalaya at the Saurashtra Cricket Association and that will be a test for Mohammad Shami to showcase his fitness. His eyes are still on the Indian side.