Bengal skipper elated with Shami’s return to action in Ranji Trophy in his first exposure to competitive bowling.
Bengal skipper Anustup Majumdar revealed how Shami had been “desperate to return” after a long injury layoff.
On Wednesday, Mohammed Shami played an official match at Indore’s Holkar Stadium.
After going wicketless in 10 overs on the first day of the current fifth round of the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy, Shami attracted a lot of attention on Thursday, the second day of the tournament. Was he in perfect shape? Was he having problems with his ankle? Was he bowling in his own head? Could he bowl as hard as he wanted to?
After providing figures of 4 for 54 to help Bengal take a big 61-run lead against Madhya Pradesh, which they extended to 231 with five wickets left by stumps, he might have allayed some of those concerns.
It was suggested that Bengal exercise cautious when managing Shami’s workload and refrain from assigning him extended periods of time. And Nitin Patel, the head of the medical panel at the Centre of Excellence, has been closely monitoring everything he has done over the past two days.
Shami was summoned in to play late in the day after bowling a first spell that read 4-0-16-0. He bowled a spell of 6-1-18-0 until the end of play. Majumdar concluded that Shami wasn’t bowling like a player returning from a year-long injury layoff because of this.
“It seemed like a big partnership was happening, but Shami asked me for the ball and said he wanted to bowl a new spell from the following over,” Majumdar told ESPNcricinfo. “He has proven how desperate he was to return to the field. It didn’t seem to me that he was returning from an injury.”
“Someone has come back after one year and has bowled 19 overs and taken so many wickets… what’s there to say,” Bengal coach Laxmi Ratan Shukla said. “He came into the match without doing any match simulation. Can you imagine? But obviously if he plays more, he will get better.”
“He bowled one six-over spell and one five-over spell. Players who bowl in the IPL don’t even know how to bowl more than four overs. He bowled the sort of spells fast bowlers are expected to. I have never seen a fast bowler come back so strongly after one year away. What he did today is like a fairy-tale.”