Shami: A homecoming of sorts awaits the veteran as he returns to Eden

 When Mohammed Shami breaks into his famous chugging run-up at the Eden Gardens against England in the first T20 International of a new series on 22 January, it will be a homecoming of sorts for the tough-as-nails customer. This is the venue where the journey began for one of the most enduring names in the history of Indian pace bowlers for his adopted state Bengal and it could well be the home stretch in the career of the 34-year-old.

 For someone in his mid-thirties and the knees and ankle ravaged by surgeries, it has not been easy for the Amroah Express to claw himself back to international cricket after a gap of nearly 14 months. For the last two months when the Border-Gavaskar Trophy was going on, the will he, won’t he over the issue of Shami joining the squad Down Under kept doing the rounds till it became clear towards the end that he would not be joining the squad after all.

 The lack of transparency over the status of Shami to answer to his country’s call created a lot of confusion – with expectations rising and ebbing once he returned to competitive cricket in Ranji Trophy and then again Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. The BCCI decided against eventually flying the fast bowler as they felt he needed “more time for controlled exposure to bowling loads.”

Now that he is back, the million dollar question is whether Shami will be in the frame for all three formats of the game – what with a ODI series against England to follow and the ICC Champions Trophy coming up in just over a month’s time? A learned guess on the subject is while he will be eased into the international arena for a test of his match fitness but will eventually not play in all five T20Is.

The decisionmakers will be keen to have him go full tilt in the Champions Trophy as there is a big question mark over Jasprit Bumrah's availability. A full five-Test away series against England, in the new cycle of World Test Championship (WTC), follows in June-July where Shami's presence will be invaluable.

 A week down the line after the Australians drove the last nail into India’s coffin at the SCG, the what-ifs about the fate of the series if Shami had been around still does the rounds. The absence of the veteran as the main support cast of Jasprit Bumrah was felt acutely as the latter ploughed a lonely furrow and Ravi Shastri, who was at the helm of India’s last two triumphs in Australia – felt the situation could have been handled much better.

 ‘’I would have brought him with the team, kept him, monitored him with the best of physios and best of advice even from international physios who are in Australia and seeing how he went. But I would have kept him in the mix,’’ Shastri said in the recent ICC review podcast.

A telling commentary, this, on the importance being Mohammed Shami in Indian cricket. There have been times during his chequered career when there was a growing perception on whether the man with most the most exceptional skillsets in his craft was being actually shortchanged. A very good case in point was when at the beginning of the 50-overs World Cup at home in 2023, Shami had to warm the benches as the third choice seamer in the team for first four league matches with Mohammed Siraj being preferred ahead of him and allrounder Hardik Pandya filling in the role of the third seamer and the fifth bowler.

 It was a testimony to Shami’s patience and maturity as an individual – tempered with the multiple challenges in his personal life of a rocky marriage and then flirting with suicidal thoughts – that he waited on the sidelines. The break eventually came when Pandya suffered a freak injury against Bangladesh as Shami came, saw and conquered with a haul of 27 wickets from seven games to emerge as the highest wicket taker in the marquee tournament.

 The ill-fated World Cup final against Australia on 19 November 2023 where Shami looked somewhat off colour and could not even complete the quota of overs, was destined to be his last international game in one and-a-half years. This time, it was an ankle injury as life threw him a curveball again after a high – much like the serious knee surgery he had to endure immediately after a successful sojourn in the 2015 World Cup Down Under.

 Much like Bumrah, Shami also needs to be cottonwoolled now in a bid to prolong his career – as he is not getting younger!

SHAMI IN FIGURES

Tests: 64 matches; 229 wickets; Best figures: 6/56

ODIs: 101 matches; 195 wickets; Best figures: 7/57

T20Is: 23 matches; 24 wkts; Best figures: 3/15