Mohammed Shami Comeback Update: India Seamer Named In Bengal's 50-Member Probables, Eyes Domestic Return

India's star seamer Mohammed Shami, who has not played any professional cricket since Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 and is not a member of India’s Test squad for the ongoing tour of England, was on Saturday (July 19, 2025) named in Bengal’s 50-strong list of probables for the upcoming domestic season. The list, released by the Cricket Association of Bengal, also includes pacer Akash Deep and top-order batter Abhimanyu Easwaran, both of whom are currently in England for the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series.

It also includes right-arm pacer Mukesh Kumar and senior batter Anustup Majumdar, who is likely to captain Bengal again. Spin bowling all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed, who is currently recuperating from an injury sustained in the Bengal Pro League T20, and wicketkeeper-batter Abishek Porel are also among the probables who will attend a preseason camp, the date and venue of which has not been announced yet.

Shami could also represent East Zone in the season-opening Duleep Trophy, which returns to its traditional inter-zonal format this year and starts on August 28. The tournament might mark Shami’s return to competitive cricket.

Shami, who has played 64 Tests, 108 ODIs and 25 T20Is, last played for India in their victorious campaign in the ICC Champions Trophy in March 2025 after recovering from an ankle injury. The 33-year-old scalped nine wickets in five matches, which is the joint-highest for India alongside Varun Chakravarthy who took his nine in just three games, as India beat New Zealand in the final.

But Shami did not perform as well in the IPL, where he represented his new franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad and could take only six wickets in nine innings at an economy rate of 11.23. He had earlier made an international comeback in the T20I series at home against England in January, having last played in the ODI World Cup final in November 2023 before that.

Shami had made a domestic comeback with Bengal in the last season where he played across all formats, but was not picked for the tour of Australia.

Bengal's Probables List For 2025-26 Domestic Season

Mohammed Shami, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Anustup Majumdar, Sudip Chatterjee, Sudip Kumar Gharami, Abishek Porel (wk), Shakir Habib Gandhi (wk), Kazi Junaid Saifi, Shahbaz Ahamed, Pradipta Pramanik, Writtick Chatterjee, Karan Lal, Akash Deep, Mukesh Kumar, Sindhu Jaiswal, Ishan Porel, Mohammed Kaif, Subham Chatterjee, Sumanta Gupta, Chinmoy Jain, Ranjot Singh Khaira, Ankur Paul, Rahul Kundu, Aditya Purohit, Gaurav Singh Chauhan, Saurabh Kumar Singh, Aishik Patel, Priyanshu Srivastava, Ankit Chatterjee, Saksham Chaudhary, Aamir Gani, Vikash Singh (Junior), Rishabh Chaudhary, Raju Halder, Shreyan Chakraborty, Sourav Halder, Rahul Prasad, Ankit Mishra, Subham Sarkar, Vishal Bhati, Rohit, Rohit Kumar, Rishabh Vivek, Sumit Mohanta, Kanishk Seth, Sandipan Das (Junior), Sayan Ghosh, Nuruddin Mondal, Soummyadip Mandal and Yudhajit Guha.

(With PTI inputs)