Mohammed Shami has been named in Bengal’s squad for the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He has been impressive in the domestic tournaments, where he has taken 36 wickets across formats. His performance has been crucial for Bengal after returning to action from a long injury lay-off that saw him miss a lot of cricket. He hasn’t been treated fairly by the national selection committee and continues to remain out of the national team in Test cricket and white-ball formats. His contributions in the bowling department have helped Bengal remain unbeaten in the Ranji Trophy after five matches, with three wins placing them in the No.1 spot in Group C.

Shami started the season with 20 wickets in four Ranji Trophy matches at an average of 18.60, including a five-wicket haul.

He was among the wickets in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, where he amassed 16 wickets from 7 games at an average of 14.93.

Shami will lead the bowling attack in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and will assist Akash Deep and Mukesh Kumar. Abhimanyu Easwaran will captain the team. Bengal, Assam, Baroda, Jammu and Kashmir, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, and Uttar Pradesh are in Elite Group B. The tournament will be held in multiple venues, with matches of Group B set to take place in Rajkot. The knockout matches will be held at the Centre of Excellence from January 12 to 18.

Bengal’s squad for the Vijay Hazare Trophy: Abhimanyu Easwaran (Captain), Anustup Majumdar, Abishek Porel (WK), Sudip Kr Gharami, Sumanta Gupta, Sumit Nag (WK), Chandrahas Dash, Shahbaz Ahmed, Karan Lal, Mohammed Shami, Akash Deep, Mukesh Kumar, Sayan Ghosh, Ravi Kumar, Aamir Gani, Vishal Bhati, and Ankit Mishra.