Mohammed Shami is the talk of the town at the moment because of his recent achievement of completing 200 wickets in test match cricket for India, but there has been an interesting co-incidence related to Shami’s career that he has always missed a test match whenever his current regular captain Virat Kohli has not been available to lead the side.
Shami has played a total of 55 test matches in his career so far, out of which he played 10 under his first captain MS Dhoni, who gave him the opportunity to make his debut for India.
After MS Dhoni stepped down and Virat Kohli took over, there have been 6 occasions where Ajinkya Rahane has captained the Indian test team in an interim capacity in the absence of Kohli and in all those 6 games, Shami has not played for India for different reasons.
It was very likely that Mohammed Shami was going to play under Rahane on the Australia tour last year when Kohli had to come back home after the first test match, but co-incidentally, Shami also got injured in that first test match while batting in the second innings. He sustained a fracture in his hand and was ruled out of the series.
Mohammed Shami was rested for the New Zealand series recently
Recently when Ajinkya Rahane captained India again in the first test match against New Zealand in Kanpur, Shami was not there again, as he was rested for the series. The same was the case when Rahane had captained in the one off test match against Afghanistan as well.
Shami has played 55 Test Matches
10 Under Dhoni
45 Under KohliKohli missed 6 Tests since he became Captain, Rahane Captained India in those 6 Test Matches
Shami missed all those 6 Tests which Kohli missed, never played under Rahane#SAvIND
— Vidhu Pal (@vidhu_pal) December 28, 2021
Although Virat Kohli has been removed as India’s white-ball captain, he is very likely to continue as India’s Test captain for a few more years and it might not be a surprise if Shami finishes his test career under Kohli, given both the players are almost in the same age group.
The Indian selectors, barring any drastic controversies, are expected to keep Kohli in charge of the Indian test side till the next World Test Championship (WTC) final.
