India’s premier pace bowler, Mohammad Shami, displayed breathtaking skills with the ball in hand during the ongoing Men’s ODI World Cup at home towards the end of last year. He finished the event as the highest wicket-taker, thanks to his 24 scalps in just seven games at an average of under 11, with three five-wicket hauls.
With the away South Africa series awaiting by both ends of the year, India’s chances were quite high because of the level of pacer bowling. Still, Mohammad Shami, who was included in the red-ball side at the start, was later excluded because of a late injury.
The same issue kept out of the five-match Test series at home against England at the beginning of the year before he was also out of action for the Gujarat Titans (GT) during the recent Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. A successful surgery also ruled him out of the last T20 World Cup in the West Indies and United States of America (USA).
Mohammad Shami to mark return for Bengal in Ranji Trophy
Due to undergoing surgery for an ankle injury, Mohammad Shami was out of action for half of the ongoing year. A few of the social media posts have confirmed that he has been going through his regular routines at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru, with low-intensity bowling, with a shortened run-up.
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A few days ago, before the announcement of the four squads for the Duleep Trophy 2024, it was reported that the Uttar Pradesh-born bowler could make his return to comparative cricket through that domestic tournament, starting on September 05, where most of the senior members of the side are going to take part before the start of a huge Test season at home.
India will play a couple of Test matches against Bangladesh before taking on New Zealand in a three-match red-ball series before flying to Australia for the bumper five-match series in the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25. All these games are part of the World Test Championship (WTC), as the victories in those ten games will ensure the chances of the Rohit Sharma-led side to their third consecutive final of the tournament.
With five Tests at home, the home side generally focuses on the spinning tracks, using the most of their quality four spinners- Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, and Axar Patel. In that case, one or two pacers are expected to be enough for the home series. Jasprit Bumrah is expected to get a break for the Bangladesh series.
The aim for the Indian selectors was to bring Mohammad Shami back for the Duleep Trophy. But, Still, later, decided not to rush him earlier than required, as their main focus was to get the pacers prepared in full rhythm for the Australia trip.
The 33-year-old played his last red-ball game more than a year ago, during the WTC final in 2023, and is now expected to mark his comeback in the format playing for Bengal in the upcoming Ranji Trophy 2024-25.
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A few reports have claimed that Mohammad Shami will either play one or both of Bengal’s opening away encounters on October 11 against UP and the second one in Kolkata against Bihar on October 18. The first New Zealand Test will begin on October 16 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, just a day after the UP game ends.
That means the veteran can eye to make a return for the national side either for the second Test in Pune or the third one at the Wankhede Stadium. With 229 wickets already in 64 Tests, his role will be quite vital for India in the acid test of BGT.