India’s defeat against Australia in the Adelaide Test, which also highlighted the wicket-taking load on bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, once again brought Mohammed Shami‘s absence in focus. And while Rohit Sharma said the “door is open” for the veteran pacer, the India captain added that bringing the right-arm pacer into the squad for the remainder of the Border Gavaskar Trophy depends on the BCCI medical team’s assessment.
Shami, who is currently playing the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) back home, returned to competitive cricket lately after a prolonged rehab following his ankle surgery.
“Definitely, the door is open (for Shami). We are monitoring him. While playing SMAT, he got swelling on his knee. It hampers his preparation to play Tests,” said Rohit.
Meanwhile, India’s reliance on Bumrah has been evident in the two Tests. His five wickets in the first innings at Perth turned the match around and he took three more in the second innings to complete India’s comprehensive 295-run victory.
In Adelaide, he took three of the first four Australian wickets to fall in their first innings; and when he was off the attack, Travis Head got the time to settle against the likes of Mohammed Siraj, Harshit Rana, Nitish Reddy and Ravichandran Ashwin. Siraj came back well later to match Bumrah’s four wickets, but by then Head had done the damage with his attacking knock of 140 off 141 balls.
Shami bowling from one end could have made a lot of difference, but that takes nothing away from the quality knock that Head played.
“We didn’t want to bring him (Shami) here when he’s not fit. He’s not played cricket for a very long time. We don’t want to put pressure on him, that’s unfair,” Rohit added. “We will take a call on the medical team’s (assessment). We have to be careful, but the door is open for him to play anytime.”
A BCCI selector, along with a medical team of the National Cricket Academy, was recently in Rajkot to assess Shami’s match-fitness, which led to speculations that he might be on the flight to Australia soon.
Meanwhile, speaking on live commentary during the Adelaide Test, former India coach and allrounder Ravi Shastri said Shami might join India for the fourth Test in Melbourne, if not for the third match of the series in Brisbane, beginning December 14.
