Mohammed Shami snubbed once again, India career all but over for pacer?

India cricket team star Mohammed Shami’s hopes of returning to the Test side have been dashed once again. After the pacer was left out of the squads for the series against England and West Indies, he has once again been snubbed, this time for the series against South Africa at home. What’s worse is Shami, who last featured for India in the Champions Trophy 2025, has also been left out of the India A squad for the ODIs against South Africa A.

Shami’s India career coming to an end?

Shami last featured in a Test match way back in the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia in 2023. He was then out of action after the ODI World Cup later that year which forced him to be on the sidelines for over a year. While he did make his comeback to international cricket earlier in 2025 in the series against England and was subsequently named in the CT 2025 squad, his performance in IPL 2025 was meagre, forcing selectors to ignore him across formats of the game.

Shami and chief selector Ajit Agarkar went back and forth at each other, with the latter claiming that fitness was the primary reason for the bowler’s exclusion while the former claimed that he was fit enough, and cited his performances in Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy to prove his point.

Shami has been impressive in domestic red-ball cricket recently, having picked up 15 wickets in three games already, which includes a 5-wicket haul against Gujarat.

One of the primary reasons why Shami went out of the favour of the selectors was his performance in IPL 2025. Several experts flagged his inability to bowl with consistent pace and lengths, while he also was least impressive in the season. It now remains to be seen how Shami can work his way back into the Indian setup – be it white or red-ball cricket.