Did Mohammed Shami walk away from Test cricket an over too soon?

Mohammed Shami made his Test debut on 6 November 2013 and gave up the format on 6 November 2026, thirteen years to the day. The view doing the rounds is that India have lost a fast bowler who still had overs left in him.

His figures give that view a firm base. In 64 men's Tests he took 229 wickets at an average of 27.71, with an economy rate of 3.31 across the whole spell.

Wickets in every one of his last ten Tests

The strongest part of his case is how reliably he struck. He took wickets in every one of his last ten Tests, in a run that took in South Africa over the New Year of 2021-22, Sri Lanka and England in 2022 and four Tests against Australia in 2023.

He kept carrying the load. The last Test of that run brought 4/161 from 45.3 overs against Australia, a long stint for a seamer nearly a decade into his Test career.

The missing ten-wicket matches

The big hauls are the gap. Shami took six five-wicket innings, his best was 6/56, and he never once took ten in a match.

His closing run shows the pattern. Apart from 8/107 against South Africa in December 2021, his returns were the steady sort, such as 3/80 against South Africa, 2/44 against Sri Lanka and 4/70 against Australia. He was the bowler who chipped away every match, less often the one who won a Test on his own.

Has Shami retired from Tests too early?

He leaves while still bowling well. Our Ranji Trophy ratings have him fifth of 155 bowlers, worth 17 runs a match more than an average one, and he took four wickets with eight maidens in a Ranji game this week. He will carry on in white-ball cricket and has been named in Bengal's Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy squad.

India could have used him. Their last ten Tests include defeats by 30 runs and 408 runs against South Africa, and our ratings have them third of 11 Test sides, with a 66% chance of beating an average one.

Shami's place in India's Test story rests on consistency, wickets in every match and 229 of them in all, more than on the big hauls that never came. With the red ball still doing his bidding in the Ranji Trophy, thirteen years to the day looks like a spell ended an over or two too soon.