Late-career impasse: making sense of the Shami situation

Very few fast-bowlers age successfully. Their wicket-taking nous and cognitive abilities may remain intact, but so extreme are the fitness demands that once they are on the wrong side of 30, bodies tend to fragment and physical frailties become all the more evident.

It is no surprise then that in the list of the top-15 cricketers with the longest Test careers, there are only two out-and-out pacemen — James Anderson and Imran Khan.

Challenging period

Mohammed Shami, 35, will not join those two illustrious men, with more than 1,000 wickets between them, in that roll of honour, but ever since he made his much-awaited comeback last November after a year-long absence because of an ankle injury, his main focus has been to successfully age. There appears to be a consistent desire to create meaning from whatever is left of his cricketing life even as he comes to terms with the inevitable bodily vulnerabilities.

There has, however, been one major obstacle — India’s selectors are unmoved. While the T20I boat has admittedly sailed past Shami after a below-par IPL (six wickets from nine matches at an economy-rate of 11.23 for Sunrisers Hyderabad), the Bengal quick’s non-inclusion in the touring party to Australia for the ongoing three-match ODI series, despite his prominent role in India’s 2025 Champions Trophy-winning side, would have hurt.

His fortunes in Test whites were dealt body blows when he was selected neither for the two multi-day matches India-A played against Australia-A in September nor for the upcoming twin fixtures against South Africa-A. The opening Test of India’s two-match series against South Africa at his beloved Eden Gardens on November 14 thus looks like an unattainable dream.

All of which has now given rise to the question of whether Shami still has something to offer the Indian team and if the think-tank still sees value in the speed merchant who, not so long ago, bamboozled batters with his skiddy pace, impeccable skill and inch-perfect control.

For one, Shami seems to be suffering from a lack of game-time in red-ball cricket, something chief selector Ajit Agarkar pointed out when the squad for the two-Test series against the West Indies was announced. Since the World Test Championship final against Australia in June 2023, Shami has played one Ranji Trophy match versus Madhya Pradesh in November 2024, one Duleep Trophy encounter for East Zone versus North in August and last week’s Ranji game versus Uttarakhand.

“He has not played a lot of cricket,” Agarkar said. “In the last two-three years, I think he has played one match for Bengal and one match in the Duleep Trophy. So, as a performer, we know what he can do. But, he will need to play something.”

But it is equally true that he has been a victim of circumstances. After the successful Champions Trophy sojourn, Shami played a full IPL. The Duleep Trophy was his next stop but the tournament’s knockout format meant that the pacer could play just one tie as East Zone crashed out in the quarterfinal.

In fact, in that one outing, Shami, watched by selectors Shiv Sunder Das, and Subroto Banerjee and S. Sharath (both of whom have since vacated their positions), gave a decent account of himself despite not bowling at full throttle.

He sent down 34 overs in all, troubled batters with his seam movement and lift, and, in a throwback to his menacing past, struck Kanhaiya Wadhawan once on the glove and then on the helmet, off back-to-back deliveries. In the recent eight-wicket win over Uttarakhand, he was the Player of the Match (3/37 in 14.5 overs & 4/38 in 24.4 overs).

Handbrake off

For Shami to attract the selectors’ gaze, he perhaps needs to do more than this. It may help — and even liberate — him that he would not be required to hold himself back in the fear of getting injured again, for this may well be his last roll of the dice.

“He is a guy who has performed when he has been provoked, and shown intensity and focused harder if he has been challenged and kind of chided… that’s the kind of personality Shami is,” former India batter W.V. Raman, who has seen Shami at close quarters during his coaching stints with Bengal, told The Hindu. “So, I think this is perhaps something that he will take as extreme provocation and maybe force his way back into the side and perform extraordinarily.”

This, in turn, will depend on two things. In the event Shami regains his old magic, would the Indian management like to ration his time as a lead pacer the way it does with Jasprit Bumrah? Does it view Shami’s inclusion as a hindrance to the development of a young pace bowler?

The decision-makers’ thinking, at least in the second matter, is evidently clear. Khaleel Ahmed (27 years), Punjab’s Gurnoor Brar (25), who was in the Rest of India team for the Irani Cup, and Vidarbha’s Yash Thakur (26), who won the Ranji Trophy last season, all found a place in the India-A squad that played Australia-A, and are also part of the roster that will take on South Africa-A.

With Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna and Akash Deep part of the first-choice attack, and the likes of Harshit Rana and Arshdeep Singh already among the back-ups, it does leave Shami with very little room. Moreover, India is pencilled in to play just three Tests in the first nine months of 2026 — one versus Afghanistan at home and two away in Sri Lanka — before it travels to New Zealand for two more.

As a result, ODIs might be where Shami finds his opportunities, with the 2027 World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia a good target to aim at. The 50-over format is where he has left his deepest imprint in recent times, setting the 2023 World Cup on fire with a tournament-high 24 wickets from seven matches at an average of 10.70 and then winning the 2025 Champions Trophy.

In the UAE, Shami became the fastest Indian bowler to get to 200 ODI wickets (104 matches) and was the second-quickest internationally, behind Australian left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc (102).

It is perhaps instructive that, in August, Shami said that winning the 2027 edition was the “only dream left”, and as recently as last week, with reference to his non-selection for the Australia tour, caustically remarked: “If I can play four-dayers [Ranji Trophy], I can also play 50-overs cricket.”

Will he, won’t he?

“It’s all a question of timing,” said Raman when asked if 2027 was a realistic target. “A lot of factors will be at play, but it’s definitely something that cannot be ruled out. Especially [with respect to] fast-bowling, because, of late, there has been a great need for fast-bowlers.

“I’m sure that he will fancy his chances, given that he’s done it over a period of time and he knows, perhaps, that he can maintain the fitness that is required. It will be challenging no doubt because beyond a certain stage, every year that passes in your life is going to be challenging.”