Shami’s 100th first-class match came three days after his 36th birthday, and 18 months after his last India cap
Sourav Ganguly sent a video message, Ishan Kishan called age just a number, and Bharat Arun said the selectors closed the door too early.
Sep 6, 2026
Mohammed Shami walked out at Chepauk on Sunday for his 100th first-class match. He did it three days after his 36th birthday, and 18 months after the last time he played for India.
The occasion is the Duleep Trophy final, East Zone against South Zone at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Shami went into it on 99 matches and 382 first-class wickets. For a fast bowler who came up on Indian pitches, in a system that has never been especially kind to the people who bowl quick, both of those numbers are worth sitting with for a moment.
Ganguly’s message
Sourav Ganguly, now president of the Cricket Association of Bengal, sent a video message ahead of the game. “I’ve seen you grow, I’ve played with you,” he said. “I always knew there was talent, but I’m extremely happy that you’ve used that talent to go this distance.” He called it a remarkable achievement for a subcontinental fast bowler, and added that Shami’s record in Test cricket in particular had been fantastic.
Ganguly also sent a written note to the East Zone dressing room, which was less sentimental. “You don’t play finals to participate, you play them to win. Play aggressive, play for each other, and make the East Zone proud.”
Ishan Kishan, who captains East Zone, was asked the obvious question about a 36-year-old seamer in a five-day game. “It’s hard to say when it comes to age, I feel age is just a number,” he said. “If he is working hard, it doesn’t matter. I see that hunger in Shami bhai.”
A hundred games, and none of them recently for India
The milestone lands at an awkward angle. Shami has not played for India since the 2025 Champions Trophy, the tournament India won, and where he finished as their joint-leading wicket-taker with nine. Nobody drifts out of a side after a return like that. He was dropped, and he has not been picked since.
Bharat Arun, who was India’s bowling coach for most of Shami’s peak years, said this week that the selectors have moved on too early. “They shouldn’t have closed the door on Shami,” Arun said. “There is still plenty of cricket left in him.” He directed the point at Ajit Agarkar and Gautam Gambhir, which is about as blunt as a former coach gets in public.
The selectors’ case has been consistent enough. Bowling long spells across five days is a different physical demand from the one Shami has been asked to meet lately, and India have younger quicks they want to build around. That is a legitimate argument. It also gets harder to make every time he turns up in a domestic knockout and bowls well.
What 100 actually costs
A hundred first-class matches is not a headline number in the way a hundred Tests is. It comes with no presentation and no commemorative cap. But Shami made his first-class debut for Bengal in November 2010, which makes this close to 16 years of getting through the physical work, and the middle of it includes an Achilles problem after the 2023 World Cup that kept him out of every format for more than a year.
Indian cricket produces fast bowlers now in a way it did not when Shami started. That is partly why the door has closed. It is also why the milestone reads slightly differently: he was one of the bowlers who made the change possible, and he is watching the next group take the places he used to hold.
None of which decides anything this week. East Zone are in their first Duleep Trophy final since 2012-13, the year they last won it, and they got here by knocking out defending champions Central Zone, with Mukesh Kumar taking 7 for 100 in the semi-final. He and Shami have the new ball again. If the hundredth ends with a trophy, Ganguly will have got the ending he asked for in writing. If it does not, the number stands on its own anyway.