Hyderabad: India speedster Mohammed Shami slammed former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar for his comments on former Gujarat Titans pacer's potential value drop in the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 auction on Thursday, November 21, 2024.
Shami took to his Instagram and posted a story on Thursday morning, November 21, a day before the Perth Test match. Shami wrote that Manjrekar should keep his knowledge to himself and save it for the future.
"Baba ki jay hooo. Thodsa gyan apne future k lie bhi bacha loo kaam ayega Sanjay G? Kisi ko future janna ho to sir se mile," Shami wrote on Instagram story.
Earlier, Manjrekar had predicted on Star Sports that Shami would see a huge drop in his value due to his injury history in the recent times. Shami recently returned to competitive cricket after a year's hiatus due to his ankle injury that he sustained during the last year's ODI World Cup 2023, following which he underwent a surgery.
"There will definitely be interest from teams, but given Shami's injury history—and this recent one took a significant amount of time to recover—there’s always a concern about a potential breakdown during the season. If a franchise invests heavily and then loses him mid-season, their options become limited. This concern might lead to a drop in his price tag," Manjrekar said on Star Sports.
The 34-year-old pacer was the purple cap winner in his last IPL in 2023 where he finished as the highest wicket-taker having scalped 28 wickets from 17 innings at an average of 18.64 and an economy of 8.03. However, he missed the IPL 2024 due to injury and was not retained by the franchise ahead of the IPL auction. Hence, the speedster will be on the radar of several franchises especially after a breathtaking campaign in the ODI World Cup as well where he again finished as the highest wicket-taker with 24 wickets to his name in just seven games.
Meanwhile, after a brilliant comeback in the Ranji Trophy, Shami has been named in the Bengal squad for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) 2024-25 as well. The fast bowler’s fitness will be further assessed by the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) in the tournament set to begin from November 23.
The medical staff and the national selection committee want Shami to play a few more matches before taking the flight to Australia to see how his body is holding up after playing multiple matches even if it’s a white-ball game. Hence, the speedster has shown great progress and will be soon put on a flight to Australia.
