Questioning Mohammad Shami’s injury management, former greats Ravi Shastri and Ricky Ponting feel the veteran pacer could have tilted the series in India’s favour had he been added to the squad in the second half of the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.
India’s decade-long stranglehold on the Border-Gavaskar Trophy ended after it went down by six wickets in Sydney to lose the series 1-3.
The pacer, who had been out of action after suffering an ankle injury, came back into the reckoning for his home state Bengal, impressing in all three formats -- Ranji Trophy, Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 and Vijay Hazare one-dayers --, which has raised hopes of a late inclusion.
But he was officially ruled out before the fourth Test in Melbourne with the BCCI medical team citing a knee swelling, though both Ponting and Shastri believe a trip to Australia and a return late in the series could have been pushed.
"To be honest, I was very surprised with the communication going on in the media as to what exactly happened to Mohammed Shami," the former Indian head coach stated in The ICC Review.
"Where is he when it comes to recovery? He's been sitting in the NCA for I don't know how long. Why can't proper communication come out on where he stands? A player of his ability, I would have brought him to Australia.
"Absolutely, there's no question about that (Shami could have tilted the series in Melbourne or Sydney)," Shastri added.
The 62-year-old further said it would have been beneficial if Shami had, at least, travelled with the group in Australia.
“I would have kept him part of the team and made sure that his rehabilitation was done with the team,” said Shastri.
And then if we thought by the third Test match that no, this guy can't play the rest of the series, I would let him go. But I would have brought him with the team, kept him, monitored him with the best of the physios and best of the advice even from international physios who are in Australia and seeing how he went. But I would have kept him in the mix."
Shastri feels that the fast bowler could have lent enough assistance to Jasprit Bumrah who also struggled to keep fit in the last of the series and couldn't bowl in the second innings of the Sydney Test.
"It got so tight at 1-1 going into Melbourne," he said.
"You just needed that experience and support. For all you know, he might have raised the bar as well. And it would have been the two guys there (Bumrah and Shami).
"Pat Cummins couldn't have done it on his own, Scotty Boland had to step in. So you needed a bowler of his experience. You know, as hard as Mohammed Siraj tried, you needed Shami's experience there."
There was also the Australian World Cup-winning captain, Ponting, who concurred with Shastri: "I was really surprised when he wasn't flown out even halfway through the series, two Test matches in. India's make-up obviously had Nitish Reddy there. So you had another seam bowling all-rounder anyway.
"So, if Shami, even if he wasn't fully fit, if he had to bowl fewer overs in a day, you had a backup seam bowling option to help him out and I think he could have been the difference.".
"When you asked me (in an earlier The ICC Review) at the start about what I thought the result would be, I said 3-1 Australia because Shami wasn't there. That was the first thing I said. That's how important I felt he was to India.
"If Shami, Bumrah and Siraj were in their starting team, I think things could have been completely different here in Australia."
Shami is now playing in the domestic one-dayers for the Vijay Hazare Trophy and if he is taken in for the home series against England before February's ICC Champions Trophy, time will tell.
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