Kolkata. Fast bowler Mohammed Shami, who is looking for a way back in the Indian cricket team, will now play in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy after the Ranji Trophy. He played in the Ranji Trophy to prove his fitness for the Border Gavaskar Trophy and now he will play in the domestic T20 tournament. Fast bowler Mohammed Shami was included in the Bengal team on Monday for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy starting on Saturday.

PTI had earlier reported that Shami's inclusion in the Bengal T20 team is part of a complete assessment of his fitness. This is being done so that he can return to Team India in the matches following the five-match Border Gavaskar Test series starting in Perth from Friday. After recovering from an ankle injury, Shami made a comeback in the Ranji Trophy after a year. Playing for Bengal in the Ranji match against Madhya Pradesh, he took seven wickets and gave the team its first win of the season.

It is understood that the selectors do not want to take any risk by hastily including Shami in the Indian team after just one Ranji Trophy match after completing his rehabilitation program. Those in the know of things said that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) medical team and the national selectors want Shami to play some more competitive matches in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. This will see whether his body is fine after so many matches, even if it is a white ball tournament.

Sudip Kumar Gharami has been made the captain of Bengal. Bengal will start its campaign against Punjab in a Group A match in Rajkot. Apart from these two teams, Group A also has teams from Hyderabad, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Bihar and Rajasthan. Its final will be held in Bengaluru on December 15.

Team:

Sudip Kumar Gharami (captain), Abhishek Porel (wicketkeeper), Sudip Chatterjee, Shahbaz Ahmed, Karan Lal, Ritwik Chatterjee, Ritwik Roy Chowdhury, Shakir Habib Gandhi (wicketkeeper), Ranjot Singh Khaira, Prayas Ray Barman, Agniv Pan (wicketkeeper), Pradipta Pramanik, Saksham Choudhary, Mohammed Shami, Ishan Porel, Mohammad Kaif, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, Sayan Ghosh, Kanishk Seth and Soumyadeep Mandal.