Mohammed Shami hasn’t found a place in the India squad for the five-Test tour of Australia that was announced late on Friday evening. However, the senior India quick is still hopeful of making himself available for the tour Down Under.
According to sources in the BCCI, Shami, having resumed bowling at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru, is eyeing his India comeback from the third Test of the tour if he gets the selectors’ nod. The third Test will be at the Gabba in Brisbane from December 14-18.
The Australia Tests assume even greater importance now following India’s home series loss against New Zealand on Saturday. Even if India beat the Kiwis in the third and final Test of the ongoing series in Mumbai, they will still have to win at least three Test matches against the Australians to keep their World Test Championship final hopes alive.
To be back in the contention for the Australia tour, Shami is looking forward to playing Bengal’s coming Ranji Trophy clashes against Karnataka in Bengaluru from November 6 and Madhya Pradesh in Indore from November 13.
“He stands a pretty good chance of playing in our next two Ranji games. We’re quite hopeful,” a Bengal team source said on Saturday.
“Shami has already resumed bowling at the NCA, though he has missed out on a few (bowling) sessions because of rain in Bengaluru. But, he’s certainly putting in his best for those two Bengal matches so that he could be available for the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. That’s what he is eyeing,” a BCCI official told The Telegraph.
“Putting in my efforts and getting better with my bowling fitness day by day. Will continue working hard towards getting ready for the match and to play domestic red-ball cricket. Sorry to all cricket fans and bcci too, but very soon I’m ready to play red-ball cricket,” Shami wrote on his social media handle on Saturday evening.
