Bengal have announced their squad for the upcoming Ranji Trophy season and have included Mohammed Shami after he had recently made himself available for the tournament. This comes after the veteran pacer hasn't been able to make an appearance at the international circuit since the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy final in March.
Even though Shami performed well in the tournament and had picked up nine wickets in five matches for the Men in Blue, he wasn't recalled in the team's squad for any format. He will also not be participating in India's upcoming tour of Australia that is set to commence from October 19.
Recently, a report by the Telegraph had even claimed that Shami is not in India's ODI plans for future assignments and this is not just because he is 35 years old, but also because he is in a poor form. Notably, Shami had had a forgetful outing in the Duleep Trophy for East Zone in the match against North Zone where he gave away 136 runs combined in the two innings and took just one wicket.
Meanwhile, alongside Shami, Bengal have opted to pick Akash Deep in the squad as well. The two will definitely be the bowlers, who will be having the responsibility of leading the side's bowling attack. They have also decided to hand leadership duties to Abhimanyu Easwaran for the tournament while Laxmi Ratan Shukla is set to continue his role of head coach.
Who have Bengal been paired with?
Bengal have been picked in Elite Group C with the likes of Gujarat, Haryana, Services, Railways, Tripura, Uttarakhand and Assam. They will be beginning their campaign with the clash against Uttarakhand that will commence from October 15.
Bengal's squad for Ranji Trophy: Abhimanyu Easwaran (captain), Abishek Porel (vice-captain/wk), Sudip Kumar Gharami, Anustup Majumdar, Sudip Chatterjee, Sumanta Gupta, Saurabh Kumar Singh, Vishal Bhati, Mohammed Shami, Akash Deep, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, Shakir Habib Gandhi (wk), Ishan Porel, Kazi Junaid Saifi, Rahul Prasad, Sumit Mohanta and Vikash Singh.