Mohammed Shami failed to make India’s highly-anticipated squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 on Friday. Indian cricket fans eagerly waiting on Shami’s potential return for the crucial five-match Test series against mighty Australia starting on November 22.
Shami, 34, last played competitive cricket during the ICC ODI World Cup 2024 final against Australia on November 19 last year. Shami has been on the sidelines with an ankle injury but has recently started bowling in the nets.
A few days ago, Rohit Sharma cast doubt on Shami’s early return for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, saying the veteran pacer needs to regain match fitness before the Australia tour.
“To be honest, it is difficult to make a call on him for the Australia series,” Rohit said at the press conference on October 15. “He had a setback and had swelling in his knees. That put him back a little bit and had to start again. He’s at the NCA (National Cricket Academy) with doctors and physios.
“We don’t want to bring undercooked Shami to Australia, that is not going to be the right decision for us. He’s not played cricket for a year and it is quite tough for a fast bowler to have missed so much of cricket, and then suddenly come out and be at his best. It is not ideal. We are keeping our fingers crossed.”
Meanwhile, even without Shami, India managed to name nine fast bowlers, including three in the travelling reserves for the BGT series. But surprisingly, there was no place for the 26-year-old left-arm pacer Yash Dayal.
Dayal has been selected in the India A squad for the Australia tour after warming the bench during the Bangladesh Test series. India have recalled fit-again Prasidh Krishna and also handed maiden Test call-ups to Harshit Rana and all-rounder Nitish Reddy.
India have strengthened their pace attack for Australia’s fast wickets and have dropped spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel from their current setup.
India’s squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy
Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.