Mohammed Shami has been one of the biggest assets for Indian cricket since his debut in 2013. The pacer from Bengal has shone brightly in all three formats and has come good for India in tough moments. In the last tournament he played, the ODI World Cup 2023, Virat Kohli may have taken away the spotlight, but undoubtedly Shami was the best player in the side. He proved that in the semifinal against New Zealand by taking a 7-wicket haul and was the one who got India the first breakthrough in the heartbreak final loss to Australia.
But having been injured since and turning 34 next month doesn’t make life easy for Shami or the Indian management. Mohammed Siraj has taken his place in his absence. Arshdeep Singh is playing ODIs now, and many pacers like Avesh Khan, Harshit Rana, and Mukesh Kumar are waiting in the wings as well.
There is still a question about how he returns from his injury. Will he retire from one or two formats and focus on giving his best in the remaining? That is entirely on him, says India’s former bowling coach, Paras Mhambrey. Having worked closely with Shami from November 2021 until his tenure ended on June 29 2024, Mhambrey feels that Shami “needs to decide and have that real honest conversation” with the current management about his future going forward.
Talking with News18 CricketNext about Shami’s future under India’s new head coach Gautam Gambhir, he said, “you have to give him that choice, talk to him. What is that thing you want, right? What is your plan, what where do you look at? Obviously you have your trainers coming in fitness guys coming in and S&C (strength and conditioning) guys coming in, your doctors coming in and they should be on boards.”
Shami has just 3-4 years left?
Mhambrey added that Gautam Gambhir and coaches in the current setup have to ask him how long he is willing to play and which format he prefers. Given that Test cricket requires the best, the management might want to save him for that. He’s already expected to return for the Bangladesh Test series, which starts on September 19, and then play against New Zealand and Australia later in the year.
“Where do you look at? Do you want to play what format you want to play? You want to play why do you want to play red (Test)? You want to play all and just kind of have a conversation very honest conversation saying okay fine you looking at maybe two, three, four years whatever. Have that conversation that okay fine with white ball and red ball this is the amount of games that we have, this amount of bowling you will have to do. The choice is his and you have to give him that,” Mhambrey added.
Gambhir to take some tough calls
With Ravindra Jadeja, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma already gone from T20Is, the management might want to bring in new players and prepare for the next T20 World Cup in 2026. Despite his interest, Gautam Gambhir might have to tell him that white-ball isn’t for him anymore and take some difficult calls.
“You may sometimes have to challenge him as well, saying that he may have a certain format in the mind or he may feel as a player, I feel like I can play all three format, but you’ve got to take realistic calls. Is it really beneficial? Is it how valuable you are for the team? And that Shami is a valuable player for the team, right? We need to make sure that he’s there for the next three, four years. So the purpose of, if we can have him for the next three years, and how do we create a path for him? So have that conversation with him,” the former Indian bowling coach concluded.
