India's star pacer Mohammed Shami has been named in Bengal's squad for the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25. Bengal named their squad on December 14 featuring star pacers Shami and Mukesh Kumar under the leadershing of Sudip Kumar Gharami.
There are fitness concerns around Shami. Indian skipper Rohit Sharma said that knee swelling has prevented Shami from boarding the flight to Australia for the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. He is being monitored by the National Cricket Academy (NCA) medical staff as well.
Bengal will go up against Delhi in their campaign opener at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad on December 21. They have been placed in Group E alongside Kerala, Tripura, Madhya Pradesh, Baroda and Bihar. Bengal were recently knocked out of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) 2024 at the quarter-final stage by Baroda.
Last month, Shami made his comeback to competitive cricket after more than a year. His last appearance was in the ODI World Cup 2023 final against Australia. He had an ankle surgery and represented Bengal against Madhya Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 clash taking seven wickets in a winning cause.
He played nine SMAT matches while there were talks of him being part of India's Border-Gavaskar Trophy squad. He took 11 wickets from nine games. His best came against Hyderabad with three wickets for 21 runs. He remained wicketless in three games as well.
Bengal's squad for the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2024-25
Sudip Kumar Gharami (C), Mohammad Shami, Anustup Majumdar, Abhishek Porel (wk), Sudip Chatterjee, Karan Lal, Shakir Habib Gandhi (wk), Sumanta Gupta, Subham Chatterjee, Ranjot Singh Khaira, Pradipta Pramanik, Kaushik Maity, Vikas Singh (Sr), Mukesh Kumar, Saksham Chaudhary, Rohit Kumar, Md Kaif, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, Sayan Ghosh, and Kanishk Seth.
Shami's record in Australia
The 34-year-old has played eight Tests on Australian soil taking 31 wickets at an average of 32.16. He has taken two fifers in Australia as well.
