IND vs ENG: Mohammed Shami international return delayed, pacer left out of Kolkata T20I

India left out Mohammed Shami for the first of the five-match T20I series against England on Wednesday, January 22. In a surprising move, the fast bowler was not named in the XI, dampening the hype around a much-awaited return for the senior speedster. | India vs England, 1st T20I updates |

India left out Shami, Washington Sundar, Dhruv Jurel and Harshit Rana from their XI. India picked only Arshdeep Singh as their frontline pacer, who will get support from all-rounders Hardik Pandya and Nitish Reddy. India picked three spinners in the XI despite concerns about dew in the evening at Eden Gardens.

Former India wicketkeeper-batter Parthiv Patel, who was on air, expressed surprise at Shami’s non-selection, especially after the pre-series build-up, which revolved around the star pacer’s return to international cricket for the first time since the 2023 World Cup.

India vs England, 1st T20I Playing XIs

India: Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper) Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav (C), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy.

England: Ben Duckett, Phil Salt (WK), Jos Buttler (C), Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Jamie Overton, Gus Atkinson, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood.

India picked three spinners in Ravi Bishnoi, Axar Patel, the vice-captain, and Varun Chakravarthy.

Mohammed Shami bowled full tilt during the training sessions in the lead-up to the series opener. The 34-year-old was bowling with strapped knees on the eve of the series opener.

Shami missed the Border-Gavaskar Trophy due to a knee injury when he was playing domestic cricket after a year-long absence. Shami suffered a heel injury during the ODI World Cup in 2023 and underwent surgery last year to treat the concern.

Shami bowled 43 overs in the Ranji Trophy match for Bengal against Madhya Pradesh in November. Following this, he played in all nine games of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, where he also engaged in additional bowling sessions on the sidelines to build his bowling volume in order to get ready for the Test matches in Australia.

However, he developed a knee injury concern after which the BCCI did not risk rushing him for the Australia tour.

Shami was picked for the five-match T20I series in England and the Champions Trophy. It was expected that the pacer would gain match practice for the premier 50-over tournament, starting February 19 in the series against England.

It will be interesting to see how India handle Shami’s workload in the lead-up to the Champions Trophy.