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The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) on Saturday, December 14 announced their squad for the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy, which is set to commence from December 21. The squad announcement came at a crucial juncture with reports around Mohammed Shami joining Team India down under for the highly-anticipated Border-Gavaskar Trophy are intensifying.
Notably, the squad included the name of Mohammed Shami along with Mukesh Kumar for the upcoming domestic cricket tournament. While this move comes as a surprise with speculations of Shami joining Team India are rife and the Indian pacer is spending time at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru.
Mohammed Shami to not join Team India in Australia for BGT 2024-25: Reports
It is to be noted that this development comes after a Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) source informed PTI that the Indian pacer is not willing to travel to Australia and is eyeing to play upcoming tournaments, seeing the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy and IPL 2025 ahead. “The swelling seems to come and go. He himself is keen on playing more and more domestic cricket and hence the possibility of him once again playing Vijay Hazare Trophy for Bengal (starting December 21) looks imminent at the moment. He can then bowl at least three spells and 10 overs per game," the BCCI source said as quoted by PTI.
“Shami is at the business end of his career, and hence does not want to risk another injury if he bowls long spells in Australia. What if his knee acts up badly in Australia after a long spell? He will have to field on hard grounds. He missed the last IPL due to ankle surgery. This time, he has a hefty Rs 10 crore deal with SRH. You can't blame him if he wants to preserve himself for white ball format for now," he added.
Notably, Bengal will begin their Vijay Hazare Trophy campaign against Delhi in Hyderabad on Saturday, December 21. However, a clarity on Shami’s participation is still awaited.
Bengal’s squad for Vijay Hazare Trophy
Sudip Kumar Gharami (capt), Mohammed Shami, Anustup Majumdar, Abishek Porel (wk), Sudip Chatterjee, Karan Lal, Shakir Habib Gandhi (wk), Sumanta Gupta, Subham Chatterjee, Ranjot Singh Khaira, Pradipta Pramanik, Kaushik Maity, Vikas Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Saksham Chaudhary, Rohit Kumar, Mohammed Kaif, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, Sayan Ghosh, Kanishk Seth
