The return of pace-bowling ace, Mohammed Shami, to the Indian squad for the Australian Test series will come as a massive relief to the Indian cricket team as he looked sharp during the Ranji Trophy match played on Thursday where he took four wickets for his team.
In as much as Shami may have shown improvement after undergoing rehabilitation, the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s Sports Science & Medical Team, the Team Management, and the National Selection Committee are still cautious and waiting to see how Shami’s body has adapted to the rigors of batting and bowling session in a red-ball game.
They are probably taking caution because they do not want to bring Shami back just to see him pulled out with another injury and therefore have chose to monitor the performance of the aging pacer in the second innings as well.
Having returned after over a year Shami bowled with the red ball against Madhya Pradesh where he had four spells over the course of the 57 overs of batting innings in which he claimed four wickets, conceding 54 and restricting them to four maidens in the nineteen overs he bowled.
Three out of the four that he got were bowled and one keeper caught, all of them being Shubham Sharma, Saransh Jain, and other two tail enders of MP.
Sighting the current expectations, if everything goes according to plan he is expected to rejoin the Indian squad somewhere around the second Test match in Adelaide, which is expected to be a pink ball test.
Also, it is stated in the article that Shami is not their only concern and that Ajay Ratra the national selection committee member and Dr Nitin Patel the head of the NCA medical team have come to see him bowl as their assessment will go to chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar, captain Rohit Sharma, and coach Gautam Gambhir before a decision is reached on the paceman’s availability.
A source from BCCI mentioned, “Of course, the rationale behind selecting Shami for this match was that the next Ranji Trophy match would be played after the Test season ending on January 23”.
“But the most difficult situation would arise, if after 4 days again he has any symptoms. If the NCA medical team is satisfied with his match fitness, then, he will come in before the second Test,” the source within BCCI added.
The inclusion of Shami in the squad would come as a big boost for India whose hopes of making it to the World Test Championship (2023-25) final are also very much in contention. The two-time finalists have no other options but to win four and draw one out of the remaining five matches if they are to make it to the final for the third cycle in a row.
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