Mohammed Shami was dealing with an ankle injury that has kept him out of action since November last year. Despite showing positive signs of recovery, Shami has not been included in Bengal's squad for the next two matches of the Ranji Trophy, where they will face Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. Last month, Shami mentioned at an event that he had resumed bowling at full intensity and that the recovery process was yielding good results. However, his absence from the squad indicates that he is still not ready for competitive cricket. While it was the ankle injury that bothered Shami for the past one year, now the pacer has got a fresh injury that has further extended his comeback.
Shami has now developed a side strain that has ruled him out of Bengal's next two Ranji Trophy matches, stated Times of India in a report. This means that Shami's chances of being included in the India squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, starting November 22, has all but ended. He was not named in the team announced for the Australia tour, but there were hopes that a good show in domestic cricket might see him take the flight with the team.
Earlier, Shami suffered an ankle injury, which forced him to stay away from the field since November. He was the tournament's leading wicket-taker, with 24 wickets in just seven games at an average of 10.70 and economy rate of 5.70, with best figures of 7/57. He took three five-wicket hauls in the tournament and defied all the pain and fatigue he was facing.
Bengal squad: Anustup Majumdar (capt), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Sudip Chatterjee, Sudip Gharami, Shahbaz Ahmed, Writtick Chatterjee, Avilin Ghosh, Shuvam Dey, Shakir Habib Gandhi, Pradipta Pramanik, Aamir Gani, Ishan Porel, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, Mohammed Kaif, Rohit Kumar, Rishav Vivek.
India's squad for Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammad Shami, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Virat Kohli, Prasidh Krishna, Rishabh Pant (wk), KL Rahul, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar.
(With ANI Inputs)