IND vs ENG: Mohammed Shami collects first international wicket since 2023 World Cup during 5th T20 in Mumbai

Mohammed Shami collected his first wicket for Team India in over a year during the fifth and final T20 against England in Mumbai on Sunday. Shami broke the 23-run opening partnership between Phil Salt and Ben Duckett by dismissing the latter, who was caught by Abhishek Sharma at cover after hitting a wide ball from the pacer off the toe end of his bat.

Shami’s last international wicket was in the final of the ICC World Cup against Australia at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium on 19 November, 2023. The Bengal seamer, who will be representing Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League next season, had dismissed opener David Warner cheaply as the Aussies lost their first wicket with 16 runs on the board after being set 242 to win by the Rohit Sharma-led hosts.

That would be Shami’s only wicket of the evening though as the Aussies would stage a remarkable comeback from a shaky start, led by Travis Head’s magnificent 137 off 120 deliveries, and silence the Motera crowd with a six-wicket victory that would seal their sixth ODI world title. Shami had finished that tournament as the highest wicket-taker with 24 scalps, despite being benched for the first four matches.

The 34-year-old would then be sidelined for more than a year due to an ankle injury, for which he had to undergo a surgery followed by extensive rehabilitation at Bengaluru’s National Cricket Academy, missing last year’s IPL and the T20 World Cup as well as the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia.

After returning to competitive cricket in the Ranji Trophy in November, Shami made his international comeback in the third T20I against England in Rajkot last week. The pacer, however, went wicketless for 25 runs in three overs as England posted 171/9 after being invited to bat by India.

The Englishmen would end up successfully defending the total by restricting the Suryakumar Yadav-led hosts to 145/9. He would be benched for the fourth T20I in Pune before being brought back into the XI in place of Arshdeep for the series finale in Mumbai on Sunday.

He would later dismiss Adil Rashid and Mark Wood in successive deliveries to finish with figures of 3/25 as India bowled England out for a paltry 97 to seal a 4-1 series victory with a thumping 150-run win. Earlier in the evening, Abhishek Sharma’s blistering century had helped the Men in Blue post a mammoth 247/9 after being invited to bat by England captain Jos Buttler.

Shami has also been included in India’s squad for the three-match ODI series against England that gets underway on Thursday as well as for the ICC Champions Trophy, in which two-time champions India will be playing all of their matches in Dubai and are grouped alongside hosts Pakistan, New Zealand and Bangladesh.