Indian cricket fraternity waiting with bated breath over the international comeback of Shami after more than a year. His last appearance in blue was in the 2023 ODI World Cup, when he incurred an ankle injury and later went under the knife, with the recovery leaving him on the sidelines. He made a return to competitive cricket in October last year, and played domestic matches for Bengal across formats to prove his fitness as the selectors eventually trusted him for the Champions Trophy. But in preparation for the ICC tournament, he was named for the T20I contest at home against England.

The entire build-up to the series opener in Kolkata was about Shami, who, two days back, in an event at the stadium, expressed his eagerness to make a return to Indian cricket. However, he was benched for the match as India preferred three spinners – Varun Chakaravarthy, Axar Patel and Ravi Bishnoi.

While it sparked fitness concerns ahead of the Champions Trophy, Suryakumar, speaking at the post-match presentation, revealed that it was India’s plan all along to play three spinners against England.

“We wanted to stick to our strengths, we did the same thing when we played in South Africa. Hardik took the responsibility of bowling with the new ball. So I had a little bit of cushion to play that extra spinner and all those three are doing a wonderful job,” he said after India beat England by seven wickets in the first T20I.

Spinners prove Gambhir right

Head coach Gautam Gambhir was criticised for the call to pick just one specialist pacer, Arshdeep Singh, for the match, but the decision to pick three spinners was vindicated after the trio picked five wickets for 57 runs en route to folding England for just 132 runs. Varun was the pick of the bowlers with his three-fer.

“He’s keeping things very simple, he’s clear in his mind, and most importantly, his preparations are on point. That’s what makes him different from the others,” Suryakumar added.

India chased down the target in just 12.5 overs riding on a blitzkrieg knock of 79 runs from opener Abhishek Sharma.