Will Mohammed Shami Join Rohit & Co In Australia For Border Gavaskar Trophy? BCCI Gives Major Update On His Availability

Mohammed Shami ended up bowling four spells for Bengal in Madhya Pradesh’s first innings in the ongoing Ranji Trophy. He ended the day with brilliant figures of  19 overs, 4 maidens, 54 runs, and 4 wickets. He took the wickets of MP captain Shubham Sharma, all-rounder Saransh Jain, and two lower-order batters. Shami took three wickets by cleaning up the stumps while one was caught behind by keeper Wriddhiman Saha.

As per PTI, the Indian national selection committee will closely examine Shami’s fitness for any sort of discomfort after the match. If at all, Shami gets fully fit then most likely he will join the Indian team in Australia for the upcoming Border Gavaskar Trophy. 

Former India player Ajay Ratra who is the part of selection committee and Nitin Patel, head of the NCA Medical Team will likely to evaluate Shami’s fitness. 

“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,” a BCCI source told PTI.

“So, the selectors had only one match to check his fitness. He has bowled 19 overs in multiple spells and fielded for most part of the 57 overs. He bowled 90 dot balls. But he will again have to bowl and field (in the second innings). Suppose he bowls another 15 to 18 overs in the second innings, that’s a very decent amount of overs bowled.

“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’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), R. Ashwin, R. Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.

Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed.