206 ODI wickets, ignored again: Mohammed Shami's New Zealand snub is hard to defend

India's selectors picked two ODI squads for New Zealand on Friday, 20 different players in all. Mohammed Shami is not one of them.

Five days earlier, Shami had bowled 17.3 overs against Delhi in the Ranji Trophy, nine of them maidens, and taken four wickets for 30 runs. He has done everything he has been asked to do for a year and a half. And still, when India's selectors sat down to pick a 50-over attack for a tour of New Zealand, with Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar not available for the ODIs, his name did not come up.

Why did Shami miss out?

The selectors have not explained the decision, and none of the reports on the squad quotes them.

Going by what has been said before, it comes down to three things.

• Fitness doubts: this has been the official line since 2025. Former chief selector Ajit Agarkar said in May this year that Shami's body was ready for T20 cricket, not the longer formats.
• Age: Shami is 36 and will be 37 at the 2027 World Cup. The selectors are building a younger attack.
• Time away: he has not played for India since the Champions Trophy final in March 2025, so every month that passes makes it easier to keep looking past him.

Shami himself has stopped arguing about it. Asked after the Delhi game whether he had spoken to the selectors, he said: "You people can see and write. I am inside the ground and am playing." And on his role: "My job is to just keep bowling."

Why it is unfair

Take the reasons one at a time, and none of them holds up well.

Fitness? Shami played seven Ranji Trophy matches last season and took 37 wickets as Bengal reached the semi-finals. He played seven Vijay Hazare games and seven Syed Mushtaq Ali games. He played the Duleep Trophy final last month and bowled 11 overs for 17 runs. He opened this Ranji season with that 17.3-over spell against Delhi. A bowler who is not fit for 10 overs does not bowl 17 in a day.

Age? The same selectors picked Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who is also 36, for the T20Is in New Zealand, and added him to the squad for the West Indies decider as well. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, both in their late 30s, are in both ODI squads. Age has not stopped India picking anyone else on this tour.

Time away? Shami has been away because he was not picked, not because he was not playing. You cannot leave a player out for 19 months and then use those 19 months as the reason to keep leaving him out.

Shami was asked to prove his fitness in domestic cricket. He did it in three formats. If that is not enough, the selectors should say what is.

Why India needed him in these ODIs

This is the part that matters most, because it is not really about Shami. It is about India's bowling.

In the home ODI series against West Indies three weeks ago, India's bowlers conceded 295, 405 and 352. That is 1,052 runs in three games, and India lost the last one while defending 351. Now they go to New Zealand without Bumrah, who is only in the Test squad, and without Bhuvneshwar, who is only in the T20I squad.

New Zealand is exactly where Shami's bowling works best. The pitches give a bit of seam movement with the new ball, and Shami hits the seam better than anyone India have. The 2027 World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia will reward the same skill.

And his record in ODIs is not just good. It is the best India have.

• 206 wickets in 108 ODIs at an average of 24.05
• 55 World Cup wickets at an average of 13.52, more than any other Indian
• 24 wickets at the 2023 World Cup, the most by anyone in the tournament
• 7/57 against New Zealand in the 2023 World Cup semi-final, the best figures by an Indian in an ODI
• 9 wickets as India won the 2025 Champions Trophy, in his last series for India

Even if India see him as a World Cup option and nothing more, these five ODIs were the perfect place to find out. Play him in two or three games, manage his overs, and see how his body copes on tour. Instead, the selectors will go into next year knowing no more than they do today.

How are Gurnoor Brar and Yash Thakur getting picked ahead of him?

This is the question most fans are asking, and it deserves a fair answer. Neither of these bowlers did anything wrong. But the numbers make it hard to explain why they are on the plane and Shami is not.

Gurnoor Brar is in both squads. The Punjab quick is 26, tall, and hits the deck hard, which is why the selectors like him. He started well, with 3/27 on debut against Afghanistan in June. But against West Indies he took three wickets for 220 runs in three games, at an economy rate of 7.54. In List A cricket for Punjab, he has 19 wickets from 12 games at an average of 31.78.

Yash Thakur comes in for the last two ODIs. The Vidarbha seamer made his India debut in a T20I against Zimbabwe in July and took five wickets for India A in their one-day tri-series win in Sri Lanka. His List A record is solid, with 76 wickets in 49 games at 26.93, but he has never bowled a ball in an ODI.

The others are no more proven. Anshul Kamboj went for 82 runs in nine wicketless overs in the third ODI against West Indies. Auqib Nabi played the second ODI and conceded 84 in 8.5 overs without a wicket. Prasidh Krishna is in the first squad only subject to fitness.

Compare that with Shami in 50-over cricket last season: 15 wickets in seven Vijay Hazare games at an average of 24.53 and an economy of 6.10, and that is before you even look at his 206 ODI wickets for India.

The selectors' thinking is clear enough. They want to give young quicks experience before the World Cup, and Gurnoor, Thakur and Nabi all have years ahead of them. That is a fair aim. But picking young bowlers and picking Shami are not either-or choices. There are 16 places in each squad. One of them could have gone to the best ODI bowler in the country, and the young quicks would have had him to learn from in the dressing room.

What next for Shami?

For now, it is back to Bengal and the Ranji Trophy. Shami will keep doing what he has done for 19 months: bowl long spells, take wickets and wait for a call.

There is still a year to go until the World Cup, and India will need a pace attack that can take wickets in southern Africa. If the young bowlers struggle in New Zealand, the selectors may have to look at Shami again. The worry is that by then, they will have wasted the one series that could have answered the question.

Do you think Shami should have been in India's ODI squad for New Zealand? Follow TryBall for every update from the tour.