India’s star pacer Mohammed Shami’s return to competitive cricket has been further delayed. Shami has not been included in the Bengal squad for rounds four and five of Ranji Trophy 2024. Bengal team coach Laxmi Ratan Shukla had earlier revealed that Shami was interested in playing Ranji games ahead of the Trophy series Border Gavaskar. However, the pacer failed to feature in India’s 18-member squad as he continues to recover from his ankle surgery. However, Shami will not feature in Bengal’s squad against Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.

“We are hopeful that Shami will join us for the matches against Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh,” Bengal coach Laxmi Ratan Shukla told The Indian Express last week. “He is a valuable player for India and the team, his service will be needed for Australia.” Recently, he mentioned how interested he is in playing a couple of Ranji games for Bengal before heading to Australia. Good outings in the Ranji Trophy will be good for him ahead of the Australia tour and will be a big boost for us. “Four key players play for India and India A,” Shukla said.

Why was Shami’s return delayed?

Shami has been out of competitive cricket since the 2023 ODI World Cup and underwent surgery in February due to an Achilles injury. Shami apologized to his fans. and the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) for not getting fit in time for the upcoming five-match Test series against Australia. Notably, Shami was not named in the squad for the tour of Australia as youngsters Prasidh Krishna and Harshit Rana got a nod before him.

one day after missing the team, Shami shared a video of him training at the gym along with a message for his fans. The speedster mentioned that he is working on improving his fitness to bowl every day and will soon return to playing domestic red-ball cricket. He also apologized to the fans and the BCCI and promised to return to action soon.

He was expected to return for the home Test series against Bangladesh and New Zealand, but suffered another setback due to a swollen knee, delaying his return.

Bengal Ranji Trophy Team

Bengal team for the fourth and fifth round of Ranji Trophy 2024-25: Anustup Majumdar, Wriddhiman Saha, Sudip Chatterjee, Sudip Kr Gharami, Shahbaz Ahmed, Writtick Chatterjee, Avilin Ghosh, Shuvam Dey, Shakir Habib Gandhi, Pradipta Pramanik, Aamir Gani, Ishan Porel, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, Md Kaif, Rohit Kumar, Rishav Vivek .