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Indian cricket team Men's chief selector Ajit Agarkar clarified that speedster Mohammed Shami was not part of the selection discussion for the Test and ODI squads against Afghanistan as his current physical condition is not considered suitable for longer formats.
He added that, as per the information available to the selectors, Shami is presently being managed with T20 cricket in mind despite his participation in domestic cricket this season, and therefore was not in contention for selection. Shami continues to stay out of the Indian team. He last played for India in March 2025 in an ODI match. Currently, Mohammed Shami is featuring in the Indian Premier League 2026, where he has taken 10 wickets in 12 matches while maintaining an economy rate of 8.81. "Yeah, I mean no because as far as we've been told that at this point he's, his body is allowing him to, I know he's played the domestic season and all that this year, but from the information that I've got is that at this point you know T20 cricket is what he's, he's sort of ready for yeah? I mean, so at no, so there was no discussion regarding his name," Agarkar told the reporters. Agarkar acknowledged that Auqib Nabi was very much in contention for the Test squad after consistent performances across the current and previous domestic seasons, including a strong Ranji Trophy campaign this year. However, Agarkar said that while Nabi was discussed in selection meetings and came close to being picked, India ultimately went with a limited pace attack of three seamers for the squad. He also praised Nabi's standout performances for Jammu & Kashmir. "Auqib Nabi of course you know someone who's had not just this season but done well last season, there's always a chat around that, you don't necessarily pick a lot of seamers when you pick a test team in India and he was close but at this point we've gone with the three that we've, we've picked, but there was certainly a chat around that, there's no doubt he's, he's had some incredible performances for Jammu and Kashmir," he added. Nabi finished the Ranji Trophy 2026 season with 60 wickets under his belt, including seven 5-wicket hauls throughout the season. India's Test squad: Shubman Gill (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul (vice-captain), Rishabh Pant (wk), Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Manav Suthar, Harsh Dubey and Gurnoor Brar. (ANI)
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