Mohammed Shami’s Fitness Is Being Keenly Assessed By Selectors In Rajkot

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is in touch with Mohammed Shami, who is likely to return to cricket after being out of the sport for almost a year due to injury. Having issued Shami an invitation to attend the nets at visas ahead of the Jamwa Par Cup, the panel of the BCCI Sports Science section and National Selector SS Das is currently watching his case in the SMAT held at Rajkot.

The BCCI’s Sports Science, headed by Nitin Patel, is evaluating the capacity of Shami to endure the physical game of Test cricket in case he has to be drafted to play in Australia.

In the case of Shami, the BCCI will not move to the process of selecting the player until they have been green-lit by the Sports Science Department. The Indian cricket board and chief selector Agarkar and more importantly, the Indian team’s management, are informed on Shami’s status on a regular basis.

Although performances in T20 in general may not tell a lot about how well Shami is suited for a Test match, the observation may be to assess how capable he is to handle the rigors of a Test match. The number of deliveries that Shami bowls per day has been set, and his conditions before the match and after the match are being closely watched.

Mohammed Shami SMAT Performance:

Mohammed Shami has started his way back into competitive cricket, and played four matches in SMAT so far. In terms of performances, his records include 1/46, 3/21, 0/46, and 0/38 for Punjab, Hyderabad, Mizoram and Madhya Pradesh respectively. Concerning fitness, there are speculations that he may have well performed in these endeavours. Before the SMAT, Shami also played a four day Ranji match against Madhya Pradesh in which he gets 7 wickets for the match.

That seems to be the thinking of the team management and national selectors who are anxious to see more of Shami before a recall. In the league phase, Bengal have three more games in Rajkot against Meghalaya, Bihar and Rajasthan before the knock out stage begins in Bengaluru. Shami will be hopeful of getting into the thick of things in these matches in order to make it back into the Indian team.