Mohammed Shami‘s cricketing future in the national setup and the management’s agenda have been discussed by Ajit Agarkar, the BCCI top selector. India’s Champions Trophy campaign earlier this year was the last time Shami played for the country.
Along with the pace bowler’s most recent response to Agarkar’s remarks regarding Shami’s fitness, Agarkar also discussed how well Mohammed Shami has performed over the years. According to him, the selection committee would evaluate Mohammed Shami fitness following two more 2025–2026 Ranji Trophy games.
“For India, he has been an amazing performer. Even before England, we indicated that if he was fit, he would have been on that plane. However, if he said something, might be a talk for me to have with him or for him to have with me. But sadly, he wasn’t. We’re just starting our domestic season, so we’ll see how things go and see if he’s fit enough. The Ranji Trophy is currently in its first round of competition. “We’ll find out in a couple of more games,” Agarkar said at the 2025 NDTV World Summit.
Agarkar remained adamant that a lot will depend on the 35-year-old’s health in order for him to rejoin the international team. He reiterated that Mohammed Shami was benched for the Test series against England (2025) and Australia (2024/25) because he was not fit enough.
“If he’s bowling brilliantly, why wouldn’t you want someone like Shami? However, we’ve discovered that over the past six to eight months to a year—even on the Australia tour—we were desperate to have him on, but he wasn’t fit enough. As far as I can tell, he wasn’t fit enough for that England tour at this time, but if he stays fit over the coming months, the narrative might be different,” he continued.
India decided not to use Mohammed Shami for the forthcoming white-ball series against Australia or in the 2025 Asia Cup.
Shami is presently playing in the Ranji Trophy for Bengal. By the end of the third day of Bengal’s match against Uttarakhand, Shami had scored 3/37 in 14.5 overs for the first innings and 0/21 in 15 overs for the second.
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