Shami should play for India regularly from next year: Raman

Kolkata: Former India opener and current Bengal coach W V Raman feels that speedster Shami Ahmed should regularly play for India from middle of next year.

"From middle of 2013, he (Shami) should be playing regularly for India," Raman said after Shami`s 10-wicket haul which helped Bengal beat Hyderabad to register their first outright win this season. Shami has two 10-wicket match hauls in this Ranji season and has got 28 wickets from five games with a match still to go in case Bengal don`t qualify for the knock-outs. Shami has also earned accolades from none other than former India captain Sourav Ganguly who described him as a "bowler with lot of promise." In absence of Ashok Dinda, who is with the Indian squad, Shami showed a lot of variety as he troubled the Hyderabadi line-up with his brisk pace. Despite the win, Raman said he gave a dressing-down to his wards and asked their batsmen to "buck up". "The script would have been different had we batted them out for an innings win. We still have to improve quite a lot. I was looking at a more comprehensive victory, say by seven wickets. They need to buck up." Looking back, the Bengal coach added that they should have won against Madhya Pradesh and the scenario would have been different. "Our bowlers did a splendid job this season barring one bad day of bowling against Madhya Pradesh. Though we still have a mathematical chance (to make quarters) but that has cost us badly," he said referring to their 138-run loss to Madhya Pradesh at Indore. PTI