As another Ranji season begins, the 36-year-old Mohammed Shami looks like he is running out of time. He has been ignored by the selectors -- reportedly for his age and the condition of his knees.
But one wouldn't fault him for feeling a little bit more optimistic this time around. After all, another 36-year-old, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has managed to return to the India fold after four years. It may not be a like-for-like comparison but it offers something that every ageing champion needs: hope.
Bhuvneshwar’s return to the T20I team for the upcoming tour of New Zealand has sent a clear message: age is no longer an automatic barrier for the selection committee.
Also Read: Solving the Delhi paradox: Producing stars, but Ranji success eludes
The timing matters as well. The announcement came on October 6, two days after Ajit Agarkar’s tenure as chief selector ended. Pragyan Ojha is now the interim chairman.
Every India squad that Shami missed over the last two years was picked by the Agarkar-led panel. The first squad selected by the new panel showed a willingness to think differently.
{{/usCountry}}Every India squad that Shami missed over the last two years was picked by the Agarkar-led panel. The first squad selected by the new panel showed a willingness to think differently.
{{/usCountry}}Shami did not make the T20I team. That is neither the concern nor the verdict. His case was always for the ODI and Test teams.
He last played ODI cricket in March 2025. In Tests, he has not appeared since the World Test Championship final in June 2023. Since then, his international career has been caught in a recurring debate over fitness.
When the selectors left him out of the England Test series in the summer of 2025, Agarkar said: “If he were fit, he would have been on that plane.” The senior pacer hit back from Bengal’s dressing room: “If there is a fitness issue, I should not be here playing for Bengal. If I can play four-dayers, I can also play 50-overs cricket.”
That year, Shami was India’s joint-highest wicket-taker in the Champions Trophy and Bengal’s leading wicket-taker in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, with 15 wickets in seven matches. Yet, the ODI recall didn't come his way.
If that was not enough, Shami, determined to put the fitness questions to rest, played 16 matches for Bengal across formats and took 47 wickets. Twenty of those came in the Ranji Trophy, including a standout performance in the semifinal against Jammu and Kashmir in February. He took 8 for 90 in the first innings, his best figures in first-class cricket, and finished with nine wickets for 114 in a losing effort.
Yet when announcing the squads for the Afghanistan Tests and ODIs, Agarkar said: “From the information that I have got, at this point it’s T20 cricket that he’s sort of ready for.”
The 2026 IPL was quieter. Shami took 10 wickets in 12 matches for Lucknow Super Giants. In the Duleep Trophy, he went wicketless in East Zone’s quarter-final before taking two wickets in the final, which East Zone won. Mohammed Siraj, meanwhile, finished with figures of 3 for 140 in the first innings of that final.
The numbers alone do not tell the whole story. Shami remains capable of producing spells that trouble batters, but he can no longer consistently crank it up to 140 kph. His knees and ankle have taken their share of punishment. He can still hit the deck hard, though, and make batters duck and weave.
That is what makes Bhuvneshwar’s selection stand out.
Despite last playing for India four years ago and falling well out of contention for a place in the team, Bhuvneshwar underwent a rigorous physical transformation that helped him remain consistent in white-ball cricket. No bowler has taken more wickets than him (72) across the last four IPL seasons. In 2026, he took 28 wickets and narrowly missed out on the Purple Cap.
Shami has perhaps been discussed by former cricketers as a potential India comeback for longer than any other senior player. But the BCCI has repeatedly made it clear that the experienced pacer is not part of their future plans. This was evident in the recent Irani Cup, for which he was not picked. Fellow Bengal teammates Mukesh Kumar and Akash Deep shared the bowling honours in Rest of India’s win, suggesting that Shami remains outside the selectors’ plans for Test cricket.
Nor was he picked for India A’s one-day matches against Australia A, which will play a role in the selectors’ preparations for the impending New Zealand tour. And while the Irani Cup squad was selected by Agarkar’s committee, the one-day team was picked after his exit.
Former BCCI selector Saba Karim believes Shami is now well beyond the selectors’ plans for an India return. “Selectors don’t look at him like that anymore. If you notice the rest of India’s team that they built for the Irani Cup, they had Mukesh Kumar, they had Akash Deep. In my opinion, it is the right call to move ahead,” he told Hindustan Times.
“Because the selectors have been monitoring Mohammed Shami for a number of years now, especially for the past couple of seasons. And I think there is something, maybe I think the selectors, whatever I could gather, is that they are not very encouraged by his fitness levels and his ability to bowl for a longer duration of time.”
So, is there no hope for Shami?
Not entirely.
The first few matches are key
The Bengal bowler will look to the start of the Ranji Trophy season on October 11 for an opportunity to make his case. If the New Zealand Tests remain a possibility, he will have until the opening week of November, during which Bengal are scheduled to play Delhi, Services, Kerala and Maharashtra.
But he will have to outperform Mukesh and Akash, bowlers who occupy a similar space in India’s current pace hierarchy. It will be a formidable task, and Shami will need a strong run to swing the pendulum back in his favour.
The home series against Australia, however, is unlikely to offer him another opening, with the focus expected to shift towards the spinners.
The ODIs appear an even more distant possibility. India captain Shubman Gill has made it clear that he wants to move away from experimentation and focus on the combination India intend to take into the World Cup, which is only a year away.
“I honestly think there is not that much time to experiment. The combination that we want to play, hopefully we get all the players that are available from the next series, and the combination that we would like to play in the World Cup, we want to start playing with that combination,” he told reporters after the third ODI against the West Indies last week.
India’s current ODI bowling concerns may open a door for Shami, but in all probability, he will have to break that door to earn a recall. That is easier said than done. But never say never.