Ranji Trophy 2018-19: Mohammed Shami gets conditional permission to play Bengal fixture

While Manoj Tiwary will remain the skipper, Shami’s presence will boost the confidence of the side.

Having returned from the home series against Windies, Shami visited his Bengal teammates during the Ranji Trophy match against Madhya Pradesh last Monday. (File Photo)

Ever since Mohammed Shami visited his Bengal team-mates during a Ranji Trophy fixture against Madhya Pradesh earlier this week, there were speculations that the India pacer could play a game for his state before flying out to Australia for the Test series.

And on Friday, the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) named Shami in the squad for its next Ranji Trophy outing against Kerala, which begins on November 20. But there is a twist in the tale. With the Test series to Australia set to be begin from December 6, the BCCI wants to make sure that the players maintain proper workload and are not burnt out.

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The board, through an official communication, has laid out a couple of clauses to the CAB before making Shami available. While Bengal has been informed that Shami will not be bowling more than 15 overs in each innings and secondly, every day, CAB's physio, Parthav Patel, needs to communicate to India team's physio, Patrick Farhart on Shami.

CAB secretary, Avishek Dalmiya, confirmed the development. "It is true, but we are very happy to have Shami in the squad and his presence will help us immensely," Dalmiya told Sportstar from Kolkata late on Friday.

Mohammed Shami appeared in the recently concluded Test and ODI series against Windies.

 

While Manoj Tiwary will remain the skipper, Shami’s presence will boost the confidence of the side.

Earlier, CAB chief Sourav Ganguly had admitted that Shami had expressed his interest to play for Bengal before leaving for Australia.

“We had written a letter before the first match as well to play him but he had few fitness issues for which he had to undergo rehabilitation. If he plays, it’s great,” Ganguly had said earlier.

India will play four Test matches against Australia with the first five-day contest commencing in Adelaide on December 6.

The squad

Manoj Tiwary (captain), Sudip Chatterjee, Ashok Dinda, Mohammad Shami, Anustup Majumdar, Shreevats Goswami, Abhishek Raman, Koushik Ghosh, Purab Joshi, Mukesh Kumar, Ishan Porel, Pradipta Pramanik, Aamir Gani, Vivek Singh, Writtick Chatterjee, Amit Kuila

Coach: Sairaj Bahutule