New Delhi, Nov 7 — Mohammed Shami’s childhood coach Badruddin Siddiqui said he and the senior pacer’s family had repeatedly asked him to hold off on quitting Test cricket, but the veteran fast bowler made up his mind after concluding that his chances of a recall had ended with the non-selection for Tests against New Zealand.
Shami brought the curtain down on his Test career on Friday night, exactly 13 years after he made his debut in the longer format against the West Indies at the Eden Gardens. Shami, who could extract seam and swing with the new and old balls, ends his Test career with 229 wickets from 64 matches at an average of 27.71, including six five-wicket hauls.
He is India’s 12th-highest wicket-taker in the format and sixth on the list among fast bowlers. “See, it was going on for a very long time. But I had stopped him from doing it and told him to wait a little longer. He was getting disturbed a lot for the past one year.
“I mean, when you were not getting a chance to play and perform, then every player would get disturbed. So, it was going on for a long time. But now, when he thought that after the New Zealand series, there is no hope left for a recall, he decided to make this announcement,” Siddiqui told IANS on Saturday.
He also revealed that Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s return to the national side had briefly given them reason to feel hopeful for a recall for Shami, but it never happened. “It has been going on for a long time. His elder brother, his family, and everyone told him to wait a little longer and not be in a hurry.
“But he had been getting this feeling to move on for the past few days. It seemed to me that when Bhuvaneshwar Kumar was given a recall to the T20I team, it was possible that Shami would also get a chance in the New Zealand series, one-day or Test series. But it did not happen, and what can I say now?”
Siddiqui said Shami rarely let his frustration show, even as the wait wore him down. “I always used to stop him in the past from doing this. Now it seems like he totally made up his mind to retire from Tests. He was very pareshaan (worried) in the last few days due to this. He didn’t open up much in front of me and used to be normal.
“I would tell him, ‘Mehnat karna hamara kaam hai, baaki sab upar walle pe chodho, and fit raho kyonki khelne ka mauka aa sakta hai (Doing hard work is all we can do, leave the rest to God and keep yourself fit if a chance to play comes)’, he said.
“He would do that, and whenever he came to me, he used to practice with the kids. He used to call me and tell me that he is coming and the kids, whether batters or bowlers, would go to him and play and practice with them from morning to evening,” he added.
Shami hadn’t played for India in any format since the victorious Champions Trophy final against New Zealand in Dubai in March 2025. His return to international cricket had come only a couple of months earlier, in a T20I series against England in January, after a lengthy layoff following an operation on the Achilles tendon in his knee and subsequent knee problems post the 2023 ODI World Cup at home.
Siddiqui could not understand how a bowler who was consistently delivering for his state could be considered unfit to play Tests. “When a child like Shami is performing, you said that he is unfit. He played Ranji Trophy and bowled 20 overs - how can he be unfit? After that injury, he was performing. It is not that he is bowling too many overs and not getting wickets.
“He was picking 4-5 wickets and making his team win. The Bengal team has surged in performances, and the new bowlers who are playing with him have started performing well as they are playing alongside such an experienced bowler. But we, the coaches of India, or in the administration, are not able to understand. Look, we have good bowlers, but they are inexperienced.
“Whether it is the New Zealand series or the upcoming World Cup in South Africa, even in India, there was a situation where our bowlers were conceding 350-400 runs in ODIs and were even giving away 250 runs in T20Is. It is not that the bowlers are bad. But you have to learn.
“Even though you are doing well when you come to play internationally after doing well domestically, you have to learn a lot. For that, you need an experienced bowler from the other end - whether it is Bumrah or Shami. There is no other way to do that.
“Even the coaches who are there, they can’t even tell you the things that a person is doing practically. A senior pacer can make the young bowlers understand more. All of this is beyond my understanding – not making a senior bowler play. Look at Australia – they are showing trust in their senior fast bowlers, and we are not doing it here,” he elaborated.
He believed Shami had two more years of Test cricket in him and could have played a key role in shaping India’s next crop of fast bowlers on future tough tours abroad. “Woh apne kaam se kaam rakhta hai (He minds his own business). He doesn’t say or do anything. Now that his red-ball cricket is over, he can focus on white-ball, and that’s no issue. There is still a lot of time.
“According to me, he could have played Test cricket for two years if he had played from now. I wanted him to be taken care of. For example, there are tours of England, South Africa, and Australia; they will need bowlers like Shami and Bumrah. With them, they would have provided a lot of learning to the new bowlers.
“If this had happened, you would have got a new bowling pool for the next two years. Like we had that gap in between, that didn’t happen. But I don’t know what will happen as everyone has a different working approach,” he added.
Referring to recent comments by Ajinkya Rahane, Siddiqui felt Shami’s former India teammates were equally disappointed by the way things ended for him. “No player in the world, no fast bowler, no coach, no batsman can say that the attributes Shami has, it is there in any other bowler. Today I was listening to an interview with Ajinkya Rahane, who said that we are fortunate that he is a member of our team.
“Otherwise, if we had been in the opposing team, then we would have been worried, as the most difficult to face in a game was Shami. So, everyone have supporting players like him. All these players are also worried, and sabko takleef hai (everyone is troubled). It’s not that I am troubling their teammates. Everyone wanted Shami to return.
“But what can you do now? God has thought of something else. But along with God, the people below are also involved in it. I don’t know what they have been feeling. I can’t understand what they are feeling bad about. Woh bechara toh kuch bolta bhi nahi hai (That poor thing doesn’t even say anything),” he added.
Former India all-rounder and Bengal head coach Laxmi Ratan Shukla, who was the state captain when Shami broke into the Ranji Trophy side and got his debut in November 2010, went a step further and held chief selector Ajit Agarkar responsible for the unpleasant end of the pacer’s Test career.
“Shami wasn’t embroiled in any controversy while playing Tests for India. He hasn’t said anything unkind to anyone. So what could be better than this? In the video I posted on Instagram today, I said the same thing: we all wanted him to retire after playing Test cricket. But God didn’t approve of that.
“More than God, the one below didn’t approve of it – mainly Ajit Agarkar. A stubborn, foolish, and arrogant person - he did not give Suryakumar Yadav a series after winning the T20 World Cup as captain; the man who removed Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma from Tests- that man was just worthless.
“Ajit Agarkar’s name is always there in history like this - when he used to play, he used to concede a lot of runs. But he played for a long time because he was in the team, but he’s shown his game even now,” he told IANS.
Shami’s Test journey began with a bang, as he returned match figures of 9/118 on debut against the West Indies in Kolkata, which remain his best figures. While he was a reverse-swing exponent at home, four of Shami’s six five-wicket hauls came in Australia and South Africa.
Away from home, he took 145 wickets in 41 Tests at an average of 30.33. On Indian pitches, he was even more destructive, with 76 wickets at an average of 22.1. He played his last Test in the 2023 World Test Championship final, which India lost to Australia at The Oval.
Shami will be next seen in action in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, when Bengal begin their campaign against Karnataka in an Elite Group A fixture at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on November 14. Siddiqui signed off by being confident that Shami’s best white-ball days were not behind him.
“Now you will see that he will play white-ball games in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, and then the Vijay Hazare Trophy. If he gets another chance to play in other white-ball tournaments, he will also play in them.
“The way he is bowling right now, it is happening in the same way he started his India career. It doesn’t feel like he has been there for so long and is 36. It feels as if he’s still bowling as a 26- to 30-year-old and he’s absolutely fit,” he said.