Mohammed Shami has been struggling with an ankle injury following which he has been out of action since November 2023. Despite showing positive signs of recovery, Mohammed Shami has not been included in Bengal`s squad for the next two matches of the ongoing Ranji Trophy edition.
Bengal is set to lock horns with Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.
Earlier, Mohammed Shami revealed that he resumed bowling in the nets and the recovery process is yielding good results. But his absence from the Ranji Trophy squad indicates that he is yet to recover fully for competitive cricket.
The pacer further stated that it depends on the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) whether he will play against Australia in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
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The India pacer suffered an ankle injury, which forced him to stay away from the field since November. He was the tournament`s leading wicket-taker, with 24 wickets in just seven games at an average of 10.70 and an economy rate of 5.70, with best figures of 7/57. He took three five-wicket hauls in the tournament and defied all the pain and fatigue he was facing.
In Abhimanyu Easwaran`s absence, Anustup Majumdar will lead Bengal. Easwaran is currently in Australia representing India A against Australia A. Joining Easwaran on the tour are Bengal players Abishek Porel and Mukesh Kumar. Additionally, Akash Deep, who has been part of the India Test side and has yet to feature in this season`s Ranji Trophy, is not included in the squad.
Bengal`s lineup will need to adapt to these significant absences as they look to perform strongly in the forthcoming matches.
Bengal squad: Anustup Majumdar (capt), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Sudip Chatterjee, Sudip Gharami, Shahbaz Ahmed, Writtick Chatterjee, Avilin Ghosh, Shuvam Dey, Shakir Habib Gandhi, Pradipta Pramanik, Aamir Gani, Ishan Porel, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, Mohammed Kaif, Rohit Kumar, Rishav Vivek.
India`s squad for Border-Gavaskar Series: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammad Shami, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Virat Kohli, Prasidh Krishna, Rishabh Pant (wk), KL Rahul, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar.
(With ANI Inputs)
