‘We’re not going to take any risk’ – Rohit on Shami’s fitness for Australia

India are not going to take a punt on Mohammed Shami unless they are “not 100%, but 200% sure” about his fitness to fly him to Australia, captain Rohit Sharma has said. Rohit has placed the onus of the decision entirely on the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence, formerly known as the National Cricket Academy (NCA), for clarity on where Shami’s fitness stands.

Shami has returned to domestic cricket since his ankle surgery kept him out of action for nearly a year and will next play the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy for Bengal starting December 21.

“About Shami, I think it’s high time somebody from NCA talks about him, where he is rehabbing,” Rohit said at the press conference in Brisbane after the third Test ended in a draw. “Those guys are the ones who need to come up and give us some kind of update.

“I understand he’s playing a lot of cricket back home, but there have been some complaints about his knee as well. So, look, the last thing you want is the player coming here and then pulling out in the middle of the game. You know what happens when that kind of thing happens.

“So, there is no way we want to take that chance unless we are like, not 100%, 200% sure, we’re not going to take any risk. But yeah, like I said in the last press conference, the door is open if those guys at the NCA feel that he is okay to go and recover and play, we’ll be happy to have him.”

Shami has been under the Centre of Excellence’s watch ever since he underwent surgery ankle surgery in London this February. He had been on track for a comeback during the home Tests against Bangladesh and New Zealand and had even bowling full tilt prior to the start of India’s domestic season in August but aggravated a knee problem while at rehab, which forced the BCCI to take a more cautious approach.

Over the past month, Shami has elicited talks over his impending Test return at some stage of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after featuring in every single domestic game for his state side Bengal since he regained match fitness. This includes one Ranji Trophy game, where he picked up seven wickets, as well as nine T20 outings in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT).

Since his return to the domestic fold, Shami had been under full-time monitoring by Nitin Patel, the Centre of Excellence’s head of sports science. This team, headed by Patel, has been travelling around the country to take stock of his progress and apprise the board and team management of his progress.

As things stand, Shami is yet to fully receive the BCCI’s nod as he is believed to have complained of some swelling in his knees during the T20 competition, which Rohit touched upon following India’s loss in Adelaide.

At the time, however, the Bengal team management is understood to have received no specific requests over Shami’s workload and he subsequently played, most recently the SMAT quarter-final last week where Bengal were knocked out by Baroda. Shami picked up nine wickets in 11 games at an economy rate of 7.85, with a best of 3 for 21 against Hyderabad.

Shami’s participation in the Vijay Hazare Trophy could help ascertain his readiness possibly for the Champions Trophy with time running out for him to be available for the last two Australia Tests.