Mohammed Shami Could Return To Indian Squad Ahead Of Adelaide Test If NCA Provides Go-Ahead: Report – News18
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Mohammed Shami’s return to the Indian squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy rests on the BCCI’s medical team’s clearance after assesing his performance in Bengal’s 2nd innings.
Mohammed Shami has already taken four wickets for Bengal in the first innings but his second innings performance will also be closely obseverved. (Picture Credit: PTI)
The Indian cricket team could get a massive boost with pace-bowling veteran, Mohammed Shami being tipped to return to the Indian squad for the Australian Test series after he made an impressive comeback by taking four wickets in the Ranji Trophy game on Thursday.
According to a report by the Press Trust of India (PTI), the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s Sports Science & Medical team, the team management and the national selection committee still want to observe how Shami’s body is holding up with the demands of the red-ball format.
They likely don’t want to rush and bring Shami back to the side, only for him to get injured again and thus they have opted to keep a close watch on the 34-year-old pacer and how he performs in the second innings as well.
After over a year, Shami bowled with the red ball where he had four spells across the 57 overs against Madhya Pradesh’s batting innings where he picked up four wickets while giving away 54 runs and including four maidens from the 19 overs he bowled.
MP batters like Shubham Sharma, Saransh Jain and two other tail-enders were his victims where three out of the four wickets were bowled while the remaining one was caught by the keeper, Wriddhiman Saha.
If Shami does get the nod, he is tipped to rejoin the Indian squad ahead of the second Test in Adelaide which would be a pink ball Test.
The report suggests that the national selection committee member, Ajay Ratra along with the NCA medical team’s head, Dr Nitin Patel have come to watch Shami bowl and their feedback would be given to the chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar, captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Gautam Gambhir before a final call is taken.
A BCCI source said, “Obviously, Shami was asked to play this game keeping in mind that the next round of Ranji Trophy will only start on January 23 after the Test season is over”.
“But the biggest test would be whether he again feels any pain after four days. If the NCA medical team green-lights his fitness, obviously he will join before the second Test,” the BCCI source added.
India would benefit from Shami’s return as their chances of securing a spot in the World Test Championship (2023-25) final also hang in the balance. The two-time finalists have to win four and draw one out of the remaining five games to ensure that they secure a spot in the final for a third consecutive cycle.
(with PTI Inputs)
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