Mohammed Shami, India’s experienced fast bowler, is probably not going to make the trip to England for the five Test matches starting on June 20 at Headingley, as reported by ESPNcricinfo. While he’s fit to play for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL, he hasn’t quite done enough to prepare for the rigors of Test cricket. His last game in the red-ball format was during the World Test Championship final against Australia in 2023.
A member of the BCCI medical team went to Lucknow this week to check on Shami’s fitness ahead of Hyderabad’s match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru. It’s not confirmed yet whether the selectors have decided to leave him out for the series, but it seems likely they might play it safe and drop him unless they get a good fitness report.
Shami has been out of action for over a year due to an ankle injury, although he did recover from his surgery in February 2024. Unfortunately, he’s been dealing with knee pain since then. He made a comeback to domestic cricket and played for Bengal in the Ranji Trophy, where he performed well, picking up seven wickets against Madhya Pradesh. There were talks about him returning for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, but that didn’t happen.
At 34, Shami has played 64 Tests, taking 229 wickets at an average of 27.1, including six five-wicket hauls. In the current IPL season, he has six wickets at an average of 56.16 over 13 group-stage matches. If the selectors choose not to include Shami, they have other options like Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Yash Dayal, Anshul Kamboj, Khaleel Ahmed, and Harshit Rana who could join the team for the series.
