All eyes will be on Mohammed Shami when Bengal play their Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy quarterfinal match against Baroda at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday. The lingering question will be whether the fast bowler will travel to Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. As it reportedly stands, his tour Down Under has been derailed yet again after India captain Rohit Sharma’s recent injury revelation.
The ongoing domestic white-ball tournament has only been a preparatory event for Shami for the Australia Test series, with BCCI keeping a keen eye on his fitness. And even though Shami has been active for the Bengal cricket team since his return from an ankle injury last month, featuring in nine straight games across two formats. However, Rohit’s recent statement supposedly left BCCI still pondering over whether Shami should be sent to Australia for the Test series, where India lost the second match in Adelaide after making a winning start in Perth.
According to a report in the Indian Express, Shami underwent a recent fitness test. Given the indications from the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), he isn’t leaving for Australia anytime soon. In fact, the BCCI are still worried whether the 34-year-old can bowl lengthy spells in a Test match, and hence the Centre of Excellence staff has his eyes on Shami’s fitness, which is being monitored on a day-to-day basis in Bengaluru.
What did Rohit say about Shami?
In the wake of a poor bowling show from India in the second Test against Australia, where they lost by 10 wickets, and the growing concern over Jasprit Bumrah’s workload management, Rohit, on Sunday was asked about an update on Shami. While the 37-year-old admitted that the “door was open” for his return to the international fold during the series, he struck a cautionary note, revealing that Shami recently suffered from a swollen knee during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy tournament.
“We are just monitoring him because while playing (in the) Syed Mushtaq Ali, he again got some swelling in his knee. Obviously (that) hampers his preparation to come and play a Test match. We want to be very, very careful. We don’t want to bring him here in a situation and he plays and then he pulls up sore or something happens. We don’t want to put pressure on him to come here and do the job for the team. So, there are some professionals who are monitoring him,” he elaborated.
Despite Rohit’s claim, the Bengal team hasn’t uttered a word of concern about Shami, who has played a vital role for them in the white-ball tournament. After a year-long injury hiatus, Shami returned to competitive action earlier last month in the Ranji Trophy match against Madhya Pradesh in Indore, before playing all of Bengal’s matches in the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament, including the pre-quarterfinal clash against Chandigarh, where he showed his all-round prowess.
