The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) shows no urgency to add Mohammed Shami to Australia for the remaining four test matches of the Border Gavaskar Trophy.
Despite his return to competitive cricket, the BCCI selectors are yet to take a call on the participation of the pacer, who took 7 wickets in his first Ranji trophy match. He is currently involved with Bengal for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
It is believed that the pacer will be evaluated on a few SMAT 2024 matches and reported that Shami is asked to lose some weight and regain fitness.
“What one needs to see is when he can let go of the dependency on the BCCI’s medical team, which is treating him after every spell he is bowling,” said a BCCI source.
“The medical team feels he will start losing weight as he keeps playing matches, which will help build his endurance. Since the Ranji Trophy leg is over, the first round of SMAT matches have been kept as a makeshift yardstick,” the source also said.
The BCCI head of sports science Nitin Patel and NCA trainer Nishant Bordoloi are in charge of Shami’s training and recovery routing during his time with Bengal team.
Meanwhile with Shami’s return to competitve cricket have no rush to send Shami to Australia.
“There have been no conversations about sending Shami to Australia . The fast bowlers in Australia did a good job in Perth,” a source said.
If Shami’s recovery goes completely as planned, he could feature from the third test, starting December 14.
Despite Shami’s absence, India coped well in the first test at Perth, where Jasprit Bumrah picked 8 wickets, while Siraj took five wickets while Harshit Rana grabbed four helping the side to secure win at Perth.
Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli‘s centuries also played a huge part in India’s historic win against Australia.
Leading 1-0, India will be trying to replicate the first test win at Adelaide Oval starting on December 06.
