‘I Won’t Inform…They Have To Ask Me’: Match-Ready Mohammed Shami Takes A Dig At Selectors For Overlooking Him For Australia Tour

The Indian team management has been implicitly but carried out sharply by veteran Indian pacer Mohammed Shami over his fitness after he was omitted in the Indian ODI and T20I squads to visit Australia.

Mohammed Shami Refutes Fitness Rumours

Shami denied the rumours about his lack of fitness; he claimed that he is fit and ready to play in the limited-overs teams, even though he was not able to get a spot in them.

The Indian pacer has explained that the communication gap between him and the management was not his issue but rather that of the management, because he is fit to play the Ranji Trophy matches of four days, something he is also fit to play the requirements of the 50-over cricket.

The 37-year-old pacer, who was not selected to play the white-ball leg of the Australia tour, has been selected to play in the squad of Bengal at the 2025-26 Ranji Trophy season, starting on October 15.

The team will be headed by Abhimanyu Easwaran as the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) confirmed on Wednesday.

Shami Questions Selectors’ Call After Missing Out on Australia Tour

None of the Indian team had interacted with me on fitness. It is not I who would tell them regarding my fitness – I need to be asked. So why not be able to play a 50-over game if I can play four-day cricket? Had I not been fit, I would be at the NCA and not playing in Ranji trophy here, Shami said.

The comments of Shami were in contrast to the comments of chief selector Ajit Agarkar, who gave another reason of omission of the pacer. When Agarkar talked to the media recently, he stated that there were no new updates of Shami and mentioned his playing time in previous seasons.

“I have no update. He has competed in the Duleep trophy. However, he has not been playing a lot of cricket in the past two-three years. I believe he captained a single game with Bengal and a single game in Duleep trophy. As a performer, we are familiar with what he is capable of doing, he has to play cricket, said Agarkar.

The Bengal pacer, who was playing the last representative of India in the final of the Champions Trophy 2025 against New Zealand, has not been in the national team since that time in any format.

Though Shami started that tournament with a strong hand, taking five wickets against Bangladesh, he failed to take a wicket in two consecutive games before picking up again with three wickets against Australia in the semifinal and a wicket in the final.

Although a national recall does not look instant, as Shami says, he is by no means through. He has got a full domestic schedule, an important Test series with England in early 2026 looming, and his fitness and form over the next few months might well be the determinant of whether the selectors will be calling on him again in the near future. 

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