Mohammed Shami left out of Bengal XI for Ranji Trophy game against Services

It has been a double blow this week for Mohammed Shami. He was not picked in the squad chosen for the New Zealand tour, and Bengal have now left him out of their playing eleven for the Ranji Trophy Elite match against Services. The reason for his absence has not come out so far.

In Bengal's first match of Ranji Trophy 2026-27, Shami bowled superbly. Against Delhi he took five wickets in all, four in the first innings and one in the second. Talk of his return to the Indian team had begun in earnest after that.

After Bhuvneshwar Kumar's return to the T20 side, talk of a comeback for Shami was also strong. The discussion was that he would be included in the ODI or Test team for the New Zealand tour. But his name did not figure in either team.

Now he is not part of Bengal's playing eleven against Services either. He was left out despite performing so well in the first match. It is also unclear whether Shami himself decided to take rest from this match or the team management rested him. No official information has been given on this so far.

Looking at Shami's numbers, he has played 101 first-class matches so far and taken 389 wickets in them. In that time he has taken five or more wickets in an innings 15 times, and has had 10 or more wickets in a match twice.

Shami is not the only one missing from the match against Services. Mukesh Kumar and Akash Deep are also not playing. Both are in the India A team for the three-match unofficial Test series in New Zealand, so they will not be seen in the Ranji match. The India A team will leave for New Zealand in the next few days.

Bengal's playing eleven against Services is: Abhimanyu Easwaran (captain), Ankur Paul, Sudip Kumar Gharami, Sudip Chatterjee, Shahbaz Ahmed, Sumanta Gupta, Abishek Porel (wicketkeeper), Pradipta Pramanik, Aamir Gani, Mohammed Kaif and Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal.