Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting says Mohammed Shami's fitness will matter a lot for India in the upcoming 2025 Champions Trophy. Shami recently made a comeback to international cricket during India vs England T20Is series nearly after an year.

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"My biggest concern about India when they came for Australia in the Test series was [Jasprit] Bumrah not having Shami there as a backup and him having to burden most of the load," said Ponting on the ICC Review.

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"And that's probably what happened, and might even have something to do with why he [Bumrah] got hurt. He probably ended up having to bowl a bit more in that series with Shami not being there.

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"So look, if Shami's fit, that's a positive," the former Aussie skipper added.

In the five-T20I series against England, Shami played two games - 3rd T20I in Rajkot and 5th T20I in Mumbai. He went wicketless in Rajkot but took 3/25 in Mumbai match. The pacer, however, didn't finish his quota of four overs in both the games. He bowled three overs in Rajkot and gave away 25 runs. 

England's innings in Mumbai match was over in 10.3 overs only out of which Shami bowled 2.3 overs. 

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Shami is a part of India's Champions Trophy squad as well as England ODIs which begins on February 6.

India are also dealing with uncertainty over Jasprit Bumrah's availability for the ICC tournament. Bumrah has been included in the squad for the Champions Trophy and the third England ODI.

Bumrah suffered a back issue during the last Test in Sydney on Australia tour and didn't bowl in the second inning. The team management was criticised by former players for making the premier pacer play fifth consecutive Test.

India Full Squad for Champions Trophy 2025

Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja