The million-dollar question of Indian cricket of late has been the comeback date of their premier and veteran fast bowler, Mohammad Shami, who has been out of action since the end of last year’s Men’s ODI World Cup 2023 at home winning the ‘Player of the tournament’ award.
He was added in the upcoming Test series in South Africa before the ankle injury ruled him out of the two red-ball games. Since then, after undergoing successful surgery in February, Mohammad Shami missed the five-match Test series at home and the Indian Premier League (IPL) game for the Gujarat Titans.
He has been recovering at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru to build his fitness. At the same time, there was the expectation of him making a return to the team during the Bangladesh series after going through one or two fixtures in the Duleep Trophy 2024.
Mohammad Shami expected to make a return for India against New Zealand
The aim for the Indian selectors is to bring the pacer in full shape and rhythm for the upcoming five-match series during the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 in Australia, before the start of which, the team management has thought of involving Mohammad Shami in the India A side, who will play two four-day fixtures on October 31 and November 07.
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The selection committee already has a clear roadmap for another premier fast bowler, Jasprit Bumrah, whom they have given an extended break till the end of the Men’s T20 World Cup and could miss the Bangladesh series at home.
The biggest concern for the management is to handle the situation of Shami better than Bumrah, who had a career-threatening injury. Even though, in the former’s case, it hasn’t been that bad, they have been looking to take a long time to increase the workload gradually.
Since making his debut in international cricket more than a decade ago, Mohammad Shami has recorded 229 wickets in 64 games at an average of 27.71 a strike rate of 50.2, and an economy rate of 3.30, celebrating six five-wicket hauls with a best innings figure of 6/56. He has also notched up 195 wickets in a 50-over format in 101 games.
At the moment, his work is bound to start bowling to the batters at the net regularly, while the next step would to be feature in practice matches at the NCA.
“Since he hasn’t played in a while, he has to be integrated smoothly into the system. With Bumrah, we had the T20s in Ireland, which allowed us to increase his workload gradually.” The reports have claimed recently. “But with Shami, we are talking about Test cricket, where he has to bowl long spells. It will be a step-by-step process and the Australia tour is the ultimate goal.”
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Now, it’s likely that the Uttar Pradesh-born bowler is likely to make his return during one of the three home Test matches against New Zealand, which is going to start on October 16 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
“We cannot rest everyone at one go because you need experience even in home conditions. Like in the case of the England series, where India paired a senior pacer with a youngster, a similar approach would be adopted.” The BCCI official added. “There is a good crop of fast bowlers at the Duleep Trophy who have been picked keeping the Australia tour in mind. If they do well, we can use them in home conditions before taking them to Australia.”
There were also reports of Mohammad Shami making a return for the Bengal side in the upcoming Ranji Trophy 2024-25.
