BCCI is looking for final approval from the Sports Science Department of the Centre of Excellence over Mohammed Shami's fitness before they fly him to Australia for the remainder of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, according to a report in Cricbuzz. He is expected to fly Down Under at some point in the series and BCCI wants it to be a fully approved and correct decision, without risking his fitness.
Nitin Patel, the head of BCCI's Sports Science wing at the new Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, along with trainer Nishant Bardule, besides selector SS Das, have been stationed in Rajkot to monitor Shami, who will play all of Bengal's group stage matches of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in the city.
The brief given by BCCI to Nitin and his team is to take into account whether Shami can handle the physical demands of a high-intensity Test, in case he is called up to join the Indian team in Australia.
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Bardule was working with Shami until Saturday, November 30 and according to the report in Cricbuzz, has left Rajkot, leaving behind drills for the latter to go through. Nitin though has stayed back with Das in Rajkot. BCCI wouldn’t proceed with selecting Shami until the Sports Science Department approves.
Although performances in T20s might not indicate preparedness for a Test, the primary focus is to analyse whether Shami can endure the workload of a Test rather than take into account his pace, form and rhythm. The perception at work is that T20s are considered intense enough to test a player's fitness.
Shami has played four games till now in SMAT, picking up 1/46 against Punjab and 3/21 against Hyderabad but returned with no wickets against Mizoram and Madhya Pradesh. Ahead of that, he featured in a four-day Ranji game against MP in Indore, where he picked 4/54 and 3/102 across both innings.
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