The experienced Indian pace bowler Mohammed Shami has played eight domestic games since his return from a serious ankle injury. But there is more to Shami’s return than him just playing domestic matches. A few days after Shami bowled four overs versus Rajasthan, in the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament, India slipped to an ignominious defeat against Australia in Adelaide. Not surprisingly, the fans are now clamouring for Shami to be on a flight to Australia as soon as possible.
However, at 34, Shami isn’t getting any younger. And he has had a couple of setbacks on his path to recovery. The latest stumbling block in Shami’s road to chiseling out a way back into the Indian side happened during the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament. This is what the India Test captain, Rohit Sharma had to say in the press conference. “That door is very much open. But we are just monitoring him. Because while playing Syed Mushtaq Ali, he again got some swelling in his knee.
“Which obviously hampers his preparation to come and play a Test match. We want to be very, very careful,” he added. “We don’t want to bring him here in a situation, and he plays and then he pulls up sore or something happens. We want to be more than 100% sure with him. Because it’s been such a long time that he has not played cricket. And to be fair to him, we don’t want to put pressure on him to come here and do the job for the team. So, there are some professionals who are monitoring him.”
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In this backdrop, we can revisit Shami’s first domestic game this season against Madhya Pradesh. As the match progressed, Shami seemed to get into a better rhythm. Wrist position, Shami’s most loyal weapon, once again worked wonders on a track that had a good covering of grass as he took seven wickets in the match. But looking at the short video clips from the game, it seemed as if Shami wasn’t exactly zipping through the crease and his followthrough. In other words, he just seemed a bit cautious.
In the subsequent matches, too, it seemed to be the case with Shami. In addition to the above-mentioned point, one can notice deep footholes at the crease in Australia. And that could put a fast bowler’s body under severe strain. So, the Indian think-tank are rightly not pressing the panic button by not rushing Shami back into the side. At the moment, it is better for the Indian management to trust the likes of Harshit Rana, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna and Mukesh Kumar.
Shami has been a great servant of Indian cricket. But to select a pacer, who still seems to be on the road to regaining full fitness, ahead of the incumbent players in the squad, would also give a wrong signal to the inexperienced bowlers. Basically, it is an indicator to the younger pace bowlers that “we don’t trust your skills”.
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