Mohammed Shami, India’s premier fast bowler, is eager to make his comeback through domestic cricket after recovering from an ankle surgery. Shami, who has been out of action since February, has started bowling at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru but is yet to bowl at full throttle.
“It’s difficult to say when I will be back. I am trying hard but hopefully you will get to see me in Bengal colours before I don the India jersey again,” Shami said while being felicitated by the East Bengal club in Kolkata.
The 33-year-old pacer said the injury came at a time when he was trying to recover from India’s ODI World Cup final defeat. “We never thought the injury would be this serious. The plan was to address it after the T20 World Cup since we had the IPL and the ICC T20 mega event coming almost back-to-back after last year’s World Cup. But it turned worse during the ODI World Cup itself and I also did not find it right to risk playing on with it,” he recalled.
“Even the doctors could not fathom that the injury will take such a serious turn and will take so much time to heal,” the pacer said.
India’s highest wicket-taker in the 2023 World Cup, Shami thus had to miss this year’s IPL and also watched India’s T20 World Cup triumph sitting at home. “To tell you frankly, I got tense when South Africa were pulling things back in the final. For a moment memories of our 2023 WC final loss returned to haunt me. But luckily Suryakumar Yadav took that great catch to fetch us the Cup and it took time to sink in that India have actually won it,” Shami stated.
Former India skipper Sourav Ganguly, who was also honoured in the evening, also looked forward to Shami’s comeback. “I am actually surprised to see Shami has played only 101 ODI matches. Somebody with his calibre and talent should have played many more,” Ganguly said.
The former BCCI chief remembered seeing Shami first while playing for Bengal in late 2000s. “Laxmi (Ratan Shukla) was the Bengal skipper then and I immediately told him that this boy (Shami) is an exceptional talent. I am happy to see him converting that talent into performance,” he added.
“It’s said that (Jasprit) Bumrah is the best pacer, but Bumrah has become the best because he got Shami at the other end. So you have pressure from both ends,” Ganguly pointed out.
