Indian pacer Mohammed Shami will be back in action in Duleep Trophy 2025 as he is set to play for East Zone, taking on North Zone in the crucial clash from August 28. The match will be played at the BCCI Centre of Excellence ground in Bengaluru.
Shami missed the Australia and England Test series on account of his knee injury. The selectors had a chat with him before the England series, but the pacer said that he was not ready back then.
Since the ODI World Cup in 2023, Mohammed Shami played just one red-ball game, which was the Bengal-Madhya Pradesh Ranji Trophy clash in Indore last November. The upcoming Duleep Trophy match will just be his second red-ball game in almost two years.
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Selectors Will Certainly Take Notice: BCCI Insider On Mohammed Shami's Duleep Trophy Performance
In the meantime, he coped up with the serious knee injury and started practicing at his training facility back home after recovering from his injury. Meanwhile, the upcoming match will also be a testament of his fitness before India’s Test squad for the series against West Indies is announced. What will also be interesting to see will be how many overs can he bowled if East Zone goes further into the tournament.
“In all probability, Shami will be playing the first game. He’s busy with his preparation too at his academy back home (in Amroha). He’s getting ready,” a source close to the pacer said.
Meanwhile, sources close to the BCCI said that his performance and fitness will be key to his future in Test and international cricket.
“If Shami comes up with an impact-making performance against North Zone, the selectors will certainly take notice because his quality cannot be ruled out. But what we need to see is whether he’ll play even if East Zone clear the quarter-final stage and continue to make progress. Will his body permit, given his dodgy knee and hamstring? In the Ranji game, he used to bowl three-four overs in a spell and go off the ground. So, whether his body can take the rigours of a multi-day game goes on and on to be a tricky question” the BCCI insider said.
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Shami's Absence From England Test Series Explained
The BCCI insider further clarified that Shami was not dropped, but he was not part of the Test team against England based on his fitness.
“First of all, he wasn’t dropped because of form. Fitness issues are the only reason why he couldn’t travel to England. After missing the last tour of Australia, his presence was pretty much needed for the England series. The selectors had also spoken to him before finalising the squad, but he didn’t sound too confident. That much-needed assurance from him was missing” he concluded saying.
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