Veteran India pacer Mohammed Shami didn't waste much time and gave a sharp reply to chief selector Ajit Agarkar after the latter gave a blunt statement regarding his fitness. Notably, Agarkar had earlier revealed that even though the selectors wanted Shami to be in India's squad for the five-match Test series against England, they didn't call him up as he wasn't 100% fit.
Shami, who is featuring for Bengal in their Ranji Trophy opener against Uttarakhand, didn't make much of the comments made by Agarkar and said, “Let him say whatever he wants. You’ve seen how I bowled. It’s all in front of your eyes." Shami has repeatedly been snubbed from the India squad ever since the conclusion of the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy in March. The 35-year-old wasn't really able to impress after the tournament as he only played nine matches for the Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2025 and proved to be quite expensive for East Zone in their Duleep Trophy encounter against North Zone.
Agarkar's reaction to Shami's comments
On the other hand, Agarkar had also reacted to the comments that Shami had publicly made following his snub from India's squad for the Australia white-ball tour and had stated that he will have a private conversation about it with the pacer.
“If he says that to me, I will answer that. If I read what he said, I will give him a call. I have had multiple chats with him over the last few months. If he said something, that is a conversation for me to have with him," Agarkar said, speaking at the NDTV World Summit.
“If he were fit, he would have been on that plane to England. The domestic season has just started and we will see if he is fit enough. We were desperate to have him for the Australia tour, but he wasn’t fit. If he is fit over the next two months, the story might change," he added.
Shami's performance in Ranji opener
Meanwhile, after picking up three wickets for Bengal during Uttarakhand's first innings of their Ranji Trophy match, Shami has so far given an average performance in the second innings. Even though the seamer prove to be quite economical and gave away just 21 runs in 15 overs, he ended up going wicket-less as the opposition posted 165/2 by the end of the third day and took a slender lead of 55 runs. It remains to be seen if he will be able to finally open his wicket-account for the second innings as the match progresses on Day 4.