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Xtra Time Web Desk: Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has raised voice against BCCI for the injury management of the senior pacer Mohammed Shami and its decision not to fly the pacer over for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series that India lost 3-1.

Since the 2023 World Cup Final due to an ankle injury and undergoing surgery in early 2024, he was out of the field for a long. The fast bowler then featured in domestics injecting hope in mind but was officially ruled out of contention ahead of the Melbourne test with the BCCI medical team citing subsequent knee swelling.

Hence Shastri said that Shami could have been taken to Australia and then a different decision could have been taken. As he stated, "Absolutely, there's no question about that,” Shastri said in the latest The ICC Review when asked if Shami could have tilted the series in Melbourne or Sydney."

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"To be honest, I was very surprised with the communication going on in the media as to what exactly happened to Mohammed Shami. Where is he when it comes to recovery?"

"He's been sitting in the NCA for I don't know how long. Why can't proper communication come out on where he stands? A player of his ability, I would have brought him to Australia," he said.

"I would have kept him part of the team and made sure that his rehabilitation was done with the team. And then if we thought by the third Test match that no, this guy can't play the rest of the series, I would let him go."

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"But I would have brought him with the team, kept him, monitored him with the best of the physios and best of the advice even from international physios who are in Australia and seeing how he went. But I would have kept him in the mix," Shastri added.

Agreeing to Shastri, Ponting said "I was really surprised when he wasn't flown out even halfway through the series, two Test matches in. India's make-up obviously had Nitish Reddy there. So you had another seam bowling all-rounder anyway." “So if Shami, even if he wasn't fully fit, if he had to bowl fewer overs in a day, you had a backup seam bowling option to help him out and I think he could have been the difference," Ponting told The ICC Review.

"When you asked me (in an earlier The ICC Review) at the start about what I thought the result would be, I said 3-1 Australia because Shami wasn't there. That was the first thing I said. That's how important I felt he was to India."

"If Shami, Bumrah and Siraj were in their starting team, I think things could have been completely different here in Australia," he said.