New Delhi, July 19 (IANS) India fast bowler Mohammed Shami has been included in Bengal’s 50-man probables list for the upcoming 2025-26 domestic season after being left out of India’s squad for the ongoing tour of England due to injury concerns.
The 34-year-old has not played any competitive cricket since the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season, where he represented Sunrisers Hyderabad but was far from his level best and his last outing for India was in the 2025 Champions Trophy winning campaign, where he was tied with Varun Chakaravarthy as the side’s highest wicket-taker, with joint nine scalps to their names.
Shami’s injury concerns first arose after India’s 2023 ODI World Cup campaign, where he ended as the tournament’s highest wicket-taker with 24 dismissals, as he underwent ankle surgery.
Shami marked a successful return to competitive cricket, leading Bengal to an 11-run victory against Madhya Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy. Shami took seven wickets in the match and scored a crucial 37 runs, proving instrumental in Bengal’s win.
The 34-year-old made a successful international return when featuring in the four white-ball fixtures for India against England in 2024.
Shami was not selected for the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series squad after chief selector Ajit Agarkar cleared the air by stating that he was not fit for the series, leaving a big void in India’s fast bowling scheme of things in England. Shami’s last Test was the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia in June 2023 and he hasn’t had a chance to play Tests again.
Agarkar revealed, while announcing the squad for England, that Shami’s fitness issues and inability to be fit for the Test match bowling workload meant he missed out on selection.
Abhimanyu Easwaran, Akash Deep, Mukesh Kumar, Shahbaz Ahmed and Abishek Porel are a few of the names in the 50-man probables list released by Bengal.
–IANS
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