Mohammed Shami reignites verbal battle with Ajit Agarkar: ‘Let him say whatever he wants. You have seen how I bowled’

Indian fast bowler Mohammed Shami has once again hit back at Ajit Agarkar as the BCCI chief selector keeps insisting that the pacer is not fit, which is why he has not played for the Men In Blue since the Champions Trophy 2025.

This is the second time Shami has trained his guns at BCCI or Agarkar after being overlooked for the ODI series in Australia, which starts on Sunday (19 October) in Perth. The BCCI has maintained that Shami is facing fitness issues, as they ignored the 35-year-old pacer for the Test tour of England and the Asia Cup.

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After Agarkar reiterated on Friday that Shami remains out of the team due to fitness issues, Shami hit back at Agarkar on Saturday after the end of the third day's play in the Ranji Trophy match between Bengal and Uttarakhand.

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Shami slams Agarkar, once again

Shami took seven wickets against Uttarakhand as Bengal won the Ranji match by eight wickets. After firing Bengal to victory, Shami stated that his fitness is there for everyone to see.

"Let him say whatever he wants. You have seen how I bowled. It is all in front of your eyes", Shami was quoted as saying by Sportstar.

After Shami slammed the selectors for questioning his fitness the first time, Agarkar, during an NDTV event, said that he has had “multiple” chats with Shami in recent months and the only reason the fast bowler continues to sit out is because he is still not fully fit.

“If he says that to me, I will probably answer that. I mean if he was here, I would probably do that. I am not quite sure what he said on social media. Maybe if I read that, I might give him a call but my phone is always on for most players. I have had multiple chats with him over the last few months, but I don’t want to try and give you a headline here,” said Agarkar.

“He has been an incredible performer for India. If he said something, maybe that is a conversation for me to have with him or him to have with me. But even before England, we said if he was fit, he would have been on that plane. Unfortunately, he wasn’t. Our domestic season has just started so we will see if he is fit enough and we will see where it goes. This is the first round of Ranji games that is going on. We will find out in a couple of more games.

“If he is bowling well, why would you not want to have someone like a Shami. But what we have found in the last six-eight months to a year, even during the Australia tour, we were desperate to have him on, but unfortunately his fitness wasn’t there. If he does stay fit over the next few months, the story might be different. But at this point, as far as I know, he wasn’t fit enough for that England tour,” he added.