On Thursday, the second day of the ongoing fifth round of the Ranji Trophy 2024-25, Shami attracted huge interest, after going wicketless in ten overs on the opening day. Was he completely fit? Were you worried about your ankle? Was he bowling within himself? Were you able to bowl with full intensity?
He may have cleared some of those doubts after returning figures of 4 for 54 to help Bengal take a sizeable 61-run lead against Madhya Pradesh which they extended to 231 with five wickets still remaining at stumps. Since the match was not televised or broadcast, you couldn’t have told whether Shami was bowling with the intensity he knows unless you were at the venue. But those within the Bengal camp couldn’t be happier.
ESPNcricinfo understands that Bengal was advised to be careful in managing Shami’s workload and not give him long stints. And his every move over the last two days was closely watched by Nitin Patel, head of the Center of Excellence’s medical panel. Patel and his team were asked to submit a report to the national selectors and the team management after the match.
Having bowled a first spell reading 4-0-16-0, Shami returned to play at the end of the day. He bowled until the end of the game in a spell that read 6-1-18-0. That led Majumdar to believe that Shami was not bowling like someone returning from a year of injury layoff.
“It seemed like a great partnership was happening but Shami asked me for the ball and said he wanted to bowl a new spell from the next one,” Majumdar told ESPNcricinfo. “He showed how desperate he was to get back on the field. It didn’t feel like he was coming back from an injury.”
A short clip of Shami’s spell released by the BCCI showed him bowling his usual run, bowling the ball and disturbing both the inside and outside edges. Three of their four wickets were bowled.
Shubham Sharma, the captain, continued forward, while Saransh Jain squared up and was bowled by a late move. Kumar Kartikeya was out behind a visiting swinger, while Kulwant Khejroliya, the number 11, was bowled playing on the wrong line. In total, MP lose 9 for 61 after cruising to 106 for 1.
“He bowled a six-over spell and a five-over spell. Players who bowl in the IPL don’t even know how to bowl more than four overs. He bowled the kind of spells that fast bowlers are expected to do. I have never seen “A fast bowler returns so strongly after a year away. “What he did today is like a fairy tale.”
With the Ranji Trophy giving way to the white-ball leg of India’s domestic season in the coming months, Shami will have no more competitive red-ball matches to demonstrate his match readiness. Only time will tell whether Shami will be on the plane to Australia to take part in a three-day warm-up match against the Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra between the first and second Tests.
