Mohammed Shami has retired from Test cricket, 13 years to the day after he first played the format for India. The 36-year-old fast bowler made the announcement on Friday, 6 November, in a video and message on his Instagram account, ending a red-ball career that brought him 229 wickets in 64 Tests.
Shami made his debut against West Indies at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on 6 November 2013, and he chose the same date to step away. He will keep playing white-ball cricket, including the IPL and domestic matches.
“This cap, this ball, made me Mohammed Shami”
In the video, Shami held up his Test cap, number 279, and a red ball. “In this 13-year journey, this cap, this ball, made me Mohammed Shami,” he said. He spoke about the falls and the injuries, and about getting up again each time for the India badge.
He thanked his parents, family, friends, coaches, trainers and physios, and the fans who had followed him since his early days. “I got this cap on 6 November, and today is 6 November,” he said. “I made my debut on this day, and on this day I am taking retirement.”
In the caption, he wrote that wearing India’s Test jersey for the first time had been a dream, and that every wicket, struggle, injury and comeback had taught him something. “I am leaving the white jersey, but never the memories connected to it,” he wrote. He signed off with: “Thank you, Test Cricket.”
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Mohammad Shami (@mdshami.11)
A career in numbers
Shami finishes with 229 Test wickets at an average of 27.71, with six five-wicket hauls and best figures of 6 for 56. Only five Indian fast bowlers have taken more Test wickets. He was especially useful away from home, with 145 wickets in 41 overseas Tests at 30.33.
His last Test was the 2023 World Test Championship final against Australia at The Oval in June 2023. Injuries kept him out after that. He had surgery on his ankle in early 2024, and a swollen knee later ruled him out of the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia. He has not played for India since the 2025 Champions Trophy, which India won.
Shami was at his most dangerous with the ball upright on the seam. He did not need much swing; he moved the ball late off the pitch, with both the new and the old ball, and often saved his best for the second innings, when tired batters and worn pitches gave him more to work with.
Shami’s five best Test bowling innings
1. 6 for 56 v Australia, Perth, December 2018
His career-best figures came on a fast, bouncy pitch at the new Perth Stadium. Bowling short and straight in Australia’s second innings, he troubled the left-handers in particular, removing Marcus Harris and Shaun Marsh, and finished with six wickets as Australia were bowled out for 243. India lost the match by 146 runs, but the spell showed how hostile he could be on a lively surface.
2. 5 for 28 v South Africa, Johannesburg, January 2018
The Wanderers pitch for the third Test was so uneven that the match was nearly called off. Shami took five for 28 in South Africa’s second innings to bowl India to a 63-run win. The series was already lost, but it was India’s only Test win of that tour, and a sign of what this pace attack could do overseas.
3. 5 for 35 v South Africa, Visakhapatnam, October 2019
Indian pitches usually belong to the spinners on the final day, but this one belonged to Shami. South Africa were chasing 395 when he came on, and he took five for 35 in 10.5 overs, four of them bowled. South Africa slipped to 70 for 8 before a late stand, were all out for 191, and India won by 203 runs. It was his first five-wicket haul in a Test at home.
4. 5 for 44 v South Africa, Centurion, December 2021
Shami took five for 44 in South Africa’s first innings to give India control of the first Test. Along the way he reached 200 Test wickets, becoming the fifth Indian fast bowler to the mark and doing it in fewer balls than any of the others. He took eight wickets in the match, and India won by 113 runs to take the series lead.
5. 5 for 47 v West Indies, Kolkata, November 2013
The first one is hard to leave out. On debut, in front of his home Bengal crowd at Eden Gardens, Shami took four for 71 in the first innings and five for 47 in the second. His match figures of 9 for 118 are the best by an Indian fast bowler on Test debut, and India won by an innings.
A fifty at Lord’s
One of his best-remembered Test days came with the bat. At Lord’s in August 2021, he walked out with India 209 for 8 in their second innings and scored an unbeaten 56 off 70 balls, reaching his fifty with a six off Moeen Ali. He and Jasprit Bumrah added an unbroken 89 for the ninth wicket. India declared at 298 for 8, bowled England out for 120 and won by 151 runs.
From Sahaspur to the India attack
Born in Amroha, Uttar Pradesh, Shami grew up in the village of Sahaspur and moved to Kolkata as a teenager to find a place in cricket. He came through club cricket and played his first-class cricket for Bengal before India called him up in 2013.
Over the next decade, he formed one of India’s best pace groups with Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and, later, Mohammed Siraj. Between them, they won Tests in South Africa, England and Australia, where Indian sides had often struggled.
His body did not always cooperate. He fractured his forearm batting in Adelaide in December 2020 and missed the rest of that series, and injuries interrupted other phases of his career. Each time he came back.
White-ball cricket goes on
Shami’s white-ball record is just as strong. He was the leading wicket-taker at the 2023 ODI World Cup with 24 wickets in seven innings, including seven for 57 against New Zealand in the semi-final, the best ODI figures by an Indian bowler. He also played in India’s Champions Trophy win in 2025.
He plays for Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL and said he would carry on in the shorter formats and domestic cricket. In Test cricket, though, the journey ends on the date it began: 6 November.
