The India vs England 1st T20I at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata was built up as Mohammed Shami's return to international cricket after 14 months.

His last match for India was the ODI World Cup final in November 2023. His last T20I was in the T20 World Cup in Australia in 2022. With a cloud hovering over Jasprit Bumrah's fitness, Shami's return to international cricket a few weeks before the Champions Trophy was one of the significant developments in Indian cricket. But as it turned out, Shami was not included in India's playing XI for Wednesday's match against England. India went in with just one specialist fast bowler - Arshdeep Singh with seam-bowling all-rounders Hardik Pandya and Nitish Kumnar Reddy for company.

But why? Was he not fit? Then why was he even picked? Wasn't the whole idea of picking Shami for T20Is to give him match practice for the Champions Trophy? England, on the other hand, went in with four specialist fast bowlers. Former India opener Akash Chopra was certain that Shami was not 100% fit.

"Shami not playing. Obviously not 100% fit for today. India has chosen to play only one frontline pacer in Arshdeep. Hardik-Nitish the two other pace options. England fielded 4 proper pacers. Both captains seeing the pitch differently," Aakash Chopra wrote on X.

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Although not running in at full tilt, Shami did not seem to be in any sort of discomfort to the naked eye. Yes, he did bowl in the warm-ups before the toss on Wednesday. That more or less rules out the unfit theory. Then why didn't he play in the series opener against England?

As astonishing as it may sound, it was purely tactical from India. "We wanted to stick to our strengths," said captain Suryakumar Yadav when he was asked about India's decision to field three spinners on a pitch that had a lot to offer to the pacers.

Abhishek Sharma, who scored a blistering 79 off 34 balls, said the team management's call was based on the conditions. "I feel it's the decision of the team management and they thought it's a better option keeping in mind of these conditions," he said at the post-match press conference.

The Gautam Gambhir hand behind Mohammed Shami's absence

India's new-look T20 team is completely Gautam Gambhir's handiwork and it has worked exceptionally till now with focus on condition specific role than conforming to star culture.

Not picking a bowler of Shami's calibre, looking at the track and going with three specialist spinners and one frontline pacer was 'GamBall' against 'Bazball' and there are no marks for guessing which philosophy came up trumps. The decision proved to be a fantastic one as England scored only 67 runs at the loss of five wickets in the 12 overs bowled by the Indian spinners. Apart from Jos Buttler, none of the other English had any answer against Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi and Axar Patel

Actually if one goes by his 11-year international career, T20Is haven't been his strongest suit as he played 23 of them with 24 wickets and an economy rate of nearly nine runs per over.

Hence Gambhir didn't want to fit in a veteran returning post 14-month forced international hiatus into conditions where his length, he might have thought, could have been cannon fodder for Jos Buttler and company. Ironically, the seemingly fit-again 34-year-old pacer bowled for close to half an hour at the side nets, targeting stumps, even as Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav announced the playing XI without including him after opting to bowl at the toss. Although there is a heavy strapping on his left knee, Shami had bowled full tilt at the India nets in all their sessions.

While Abhishek, one of the junior most in the national set-up spoke about combination, the question however remains whether problem of a swelling left knee after each rigorous session is still causing problems for the veteran pacer.