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Shami is dealing with fitness-related issues, which is why he was not included in India’s 18-member squad picked for the five-match Test series against Australia.
Ricky Ponting feels India will miss Mohammed Shami in Test series against Australia. (Picture Credit: AFP)
Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting feels that the Rohit Sharma-led Indian men’s cricket team will miss Mohammed Shami in the upcoming five-match Test series against Australia. 34-year-old Shami, who is one of India’s best fast bowlers of all time, is dealing with fitness-related issues these days, which is why he was not included in India’s 18-member squad picked for the 2024-25 edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Shami last played a competitive match for India on November 19, 2023, against Australia in the ODI World Cup 2023 final, and since then he has been out of action.
According to Ponting, Shami is one of the leading fast bowlers in the world, and his absence is a big loss for India. Ponting feels Shami would have loved to play in Perth and Adelaide, where the first two Tests are set to take place.
“The big omission is Shami not being fit. I think that’s a huge loss for India. He’s been one of the leading fast bowlers in the world for the last three or four years, and mainly with the red ball. His one-day record’s been very good, but what he’s been able to do home and away with the red ball in Test cricket has been quite phenomenal,” Ponting said in a video shared by the ICC on Instagram.
“You talk to all the players that face him as well; they talk about how hard he is and how difficult he is. And then when you think about where the first two Tests are with Perth and Adelaide, he’d be perfectly suited to bowling in those conditions. So, I think that’s the only real chink in the armour,” he added.
Shami, who made his Test debut for India on November 6, 2013, against the West Indies in Kolkata, has 229 wickets to his name in 64 Tests played so far. Kapil Dev (434), Zaheer Khan (311), Ishant Sharma (311), and Javagal Srinath (236) are the only other Indian pacers who have dismissed more batters than him in the five-day format of the game.
In 12 Tests against Australia, Shami has 44 wickets to his name, out of which 31 came in eight Tests played on Australian soil.
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