No one in the Bengal Ranji Trophy camp knew that Mohammed Shami was going to call it quits from Test cricket. The veteran fast bowler, who had taken 21 wickets in his last five first-class matches, was still on a desperate comeback trail.
He wanted to play for the national team, even if it was for one last time.But Shami dropped a bomb two days before Diwali, late on November 6, announcing his retirement from Test cricket.India Today spoke to Mohammed Shami's personal coach Badruddin Siddique and Bengal coach Laxmi Ratan Shukla to find out what exactly went down in the last few days that pushed the fast bowler towards the announcement.A COMEBACK TRAIL THAT WENT COLDMohammed Shami had been trying to make a comeback since his snub after India's victorious 2025 Champions Trophy campaign. Shami took nine wickets in five matches on spin-friendly surfaces, the second-best tally among pacers, behind Matt Henry, who took 10.
But a few months later, Shami was left out of India's Test squad for the tour of England, despite having led the bowling attack in Jasprit Bumrah's absence during the title-winning campaign.That's when the thought first flashed in his mind, says his mentor Badruddin. "Shami had been thinking about retirement for a long time. He wanted to retire much earlier, after India's tour of England in 2025."Around that time, then chief selector Ajit Agarkar wanted Shami to lose weight, get stronger and prove himself in domestic cricket before returning to the national team.
Mohammed Shami calls in for physio due to neck strain. (PTI Photo) Okay. No problem.Shami obliged.The fast bowler took 37 wickets in the 2025-26 Ranji Trophy season, including nine against eventual champions Jammu and Kashmir in the semi-final.
But he was not recalled to the Indian team."The chief selector said that he was not fit, when he was bowling and taking wickets every day, and he was hurt that he was not even considered for selection," Badruddin said."I had been holding him back. He felt quite disrespected.
He did not say it out loud, because he wanted to make his return. We hid those emotions, but for how long will we keep this inside us?""And he finally lost his patience."WHEN SHAMI DECIDED TO CALL TIMEIt is worth remembering what Shami had already achieved in Test cricket.
He retires with the second-best bowling average among Indian fast bowlers. Only Jasprit Bumrah, the freak of nature who concedes just 19 runs per wicket, is ahead of Shami, who has an average of 27.71.Mind you, this list includes some elite cricketers: Kapil Dev, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Javagal Srinath, Umesh Yadav and, of course, Mohammed Siraj.Shami is also the sixth-highest wicket-taker among Indian fast bowlers, with 229 scalps to his name.Badruddin suggests that the final straw was Bhuvneshwar Kumar's call-up to India's T20I side for the New Zealand series.Shami had continued to believe that another opportunity might come his way.
But when Bhuvneshwar returned to the Indian team and Shami was still overlooked, he began to feel that there was little point in continuing the fight."The fact that he was not called back into the team after performing in domestic cricket, probably broke him." Shami decided to call time after Bhuvneshwar Kumar was recalled into the Indian team. (PTI Photo) 'EGOTISTICAL AGARKAR SHOULD HAVE SOME SHAME'The Bengal camp did not know Shami was going to announce his retirement on November 6, the 13th anniversary of his Test debut. But they had sensed that his fight to return was slowly fading.
They had watched him get sidelined by the selection committee time and again.Bengal head coach Laxmi Ratan Shukla gave a scathing review of the whole saga."Ajit Agarkar will be remembered as an egotistical guy. No one will remember him as a fast bowler.
His legacy will be of an egotistical selector who ruined several lives."There is good reason for Laxmi Shukla's candid response.Mohammed Shami was Laxmi Shukla's find in 2010. Bengal were transitioning from the great Ranadeb Bose (317 first-class wickets), and needed someone sharp to pair with the speedster Ashok Dinda."I still remember that day when I was the captain, and he came to bowl in the nets.
He was playing at Under-23 level. From there, I directly made him play Ranji Trophy cricket.
And the rest is history," the Bengal coach fondly remembers.Shami and Dinda wreaked havoc on the domestic sides. Manoj Tiwary fondly remembers a Ranji Trophy match from 2017, where he put in nine slip fielders for the two fast bowlers.
Courtesy: X But Shukla's fond memories soon give way to anger over the way Shami was treated."Ajit Agarkar will have to carry this sin, this responsibility, for the rest of his life.""Shami was performing. And you still did not select him.
What could be more shameful than that?"For Shukla, the issue goes beyond Shami. He believes Agarkar's ego has shaped several of his decisions, and points to the treatment of some of India's biggest names as examples."What did he have against Suryakumar Yadav?
He had won a World Cup, and in the very next series you are removing a World Cup-winning captain. Why did you drop Rohit Sharma as the ODI captain?
Why were you behind the life of Virat Kohli in Test cricket? Jalaj Saxena has been waiting for four years now.""Only Agarkar and his ego knows what the problem is." Virat Kohli retired after a poor BGT 2024-25 campaign. (Reuters Photo) Shami's retirement video was sombre and respectful.
He has, after all, retired from only one format, with the 2027 ODI World Cup still in sight."Shami had at least two years of Test cricket left in him. He had been training really hard.
He trained between 1 pm and 8 pm. Kids at my academy saw him train and they got better in fitness and bowling while playing with him.
The fact that they (selectors) did not see value in him hurts," Badruddin sighs.While he has retired from Test cricket, Shami will continue to play red-ball cricket for Bengal. He says that it is to maintain fitness.Badruddin does not believe so."He did not find his cricket in Uttar Pradesh.
Bengal gave him that, and that's why he turns up for Bengal every time they need him. That's the kind of ethic he has built his life on."For Badruddin and Shukla, Shami's retirement is difficult to accept for different reasons.
One has watched him grow as a cricketer and stood by him through the difficult years. The other gave him his first opportunity in Ranji Trophy cricket and watched him become one of India's finest fast bowlers.
Both believe he had more to give. And neither seem ready to accept that his Test career is over.- Ends