{"id":169601,"date":"2026-05-19T15:49:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T21:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=169601"},"modified":"2026-05-19T15:49:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T21:19:45","slug":"india-vs-afghanistan-test-ajit-agarkar-explains-shami-auqib-nabi-non-selections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=169601","title":{"rendered":"India vs Afghanistan Test: Ajit Agarkar explains Shami, Auqib Nabi non-selections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"content-body-70998583\" itemprop=\"articleBody\">Ajit Agarkar, the chief selector of India\u2019s men\u2019s cricket squad, has stated that Mohammed Shami was not considered for the Afghanistan series since the veteran pacer is ready only for T20 ricket for now. Agarkar also mentioned that Auqib Nabi came very close to his maiden Test call-up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs far as we have been told, at this point, his body is allowing him to\u2026I know he has played the domestic season this year. But from the information that I have got is that at this point, T20 cricket is what he is sort of ready for. So, there was no discussion regarding his name,\u201d Agarkar said after the announcement of India\u2019s squad for the lone Test and three ODI series against Afghanistan at home.<\/p>\n<p>Shami, a veteran of 197 international caps across formats, last featured in India colours during the Champions Trophy final in March 2025.<\/p>\n<p><b>ALSO READ | <a href=\"https:\/\/sportstar.thehindu.com\/cricket\/indian\/india-vs-afghanistan-squad-announcement-test-odi-ajit-agarkar-press-conference\/article70998297.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">KL Rahul replaces Pant as Test vice-captain<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<p>With Harshit Rana and Akash Deep injured and the selectors deciding to rest Jasprit Bumrah, Auqib \u2013 the Jammu &amp; Kashmir swing bowler, who was one of the stars of the Ranji Trophy season \u2013 was expected to earn a maiden call-up to the Test squad. However, the selectors went for Gurnoor Brar as the back-up pacer to assist Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomeone who has had not just this season, but done well last season. There is always a chat around that. You do not necessarily pick a lot of seamers when you pick a Test team in India. And he was close,\u201d Agarkar said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut at this point, we have gone with the three that we have picked. But there was certainly a chat around that. There is no doubt. He has had some incredible performances for Jammu &amp; Kashmir.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nabi \u2013 with a combined tally of 104 wickets in the last two Ranji seasons, including a whopping 60 wickets last season \u2013 will have to wait for his chance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"publish-time\" id=\"end-of-article\">Published on May 19, 2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/sportstar.thehindu.com\/cricket\/indian\/india-vs-afghanistan-test-mohammed-shami-auqib-nabi-selection-ajit-agarkar-explains\/article70998583.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ajit Agarkar, the chief selector of India\u2019s men\u2019s cricket squad, has stated that Mohammed Shami was not considered for the Afghanistan series since the veteran pacer is ready only for T20 ricket for now. Agarkar also mentioned that Auqib Nabi came very close to his maiden Test call-up. \u201cAs far as we have been told,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":169602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-169601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ebac4a6e-376a-4b11-a998-791e1dc00c35.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgnRh4-I7v","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=169601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/169602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=169601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=169601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=169601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}