Mohammed Shami sent down 17 overs on his return to first-class cricket after almost a year. Yet, that wasn’t of much help for East Zone as North Zone posted 308/6 on Day I of the Duleep Trophy quarter-final clash at the BCCI Centre of Excellence ground in Bengaluru on Thursday.
In his 17 overs on the day, Shami bowled four maidens and took a wicket late in the final session, when North Zone’s Sahil Lotra holed out to keeper Kumar Kushagra. Since that wicket, North Zone — led by Ankit Kumar, as Shubman Gill missed the game due to illness — added 36 more to their total with Kanhaiya Wadhawan (42) and Mayank Dagar (28) at the crease.
As expected, Shami began the proceedings for the Riyan Parag-led East Zone, who were without their stand-in captain Abhimanyu Easwaran, as the latter was down with fever since Wednesday evening. Shami appeared a bit out of touch in his first two spells, with the sharpness missing a little bit, possibly since he was trying to tune his body to the rigours of the multi-day format.
The senior pacer beat the outside edge a couple of times, but North Zone openers Ankit and Shubham Khajuria negotiated the spell without much difficulty. Shami’s first spell of the day read 5-2-10-0 and the second 3-0-10-0, as he bowled both in the morning session.
However, in his third spell right after lunch (4-2-9-0), Shami looked sharper and quick, testing the rival batters by focusing on the area outside the off-stump. The occasional in-dippers, too, were back as Ayush Badoni (60) and Nishant Sindhu (47) copped a couple of blows on their pads.
The 34-year-old could have had his first wicket a bit earlier in the fourth spell (5-0-26-1), where he was a little bit expensive. But Kumar Kushagra dropped counterpart Wadhawan, who was then on 27, at long-on.
Soon after, though, Shami picked up the wicket of Lotra.
Shami’s wickets column doesn’t look too impressive, but in terms of fitness, he shouldn’t be too disappointed. For a fast bowler making his return to red-ball cricket after a long period, and that too in his 30s, bowling 17 overs in a day is not an easy task.
If the India and Bengal pacer maintains his sharpness and also goes on to take a wicket or two more when play resumes on Friday, that may lead to the national selectors again discussing about him in the coming days.
A few eyes are also on Shami’s Bengal teammate Mukesh Kumar, who has long been out of the Indian Test squad. The 31-year-old quick ended wicketless in his 11.5 overs on the day, while he also had to spend nine overs out of the field due to a hamstring concern between the first and second sessions.
Brief scores: North Zone 308/6 (Ayush Badoni 60; Manishi 3/90, Mohammed Shami 1/55) vs East Zone. At stumps, Day I.
Written with PTI inputs
