Mohammed Shami has called time on his Test career, announcing his retirement from the longest format exactly 13 years to the day after he made his debut. The 36-year-old fast bowler shared the news in an emotional video on Instagram on Friday, 6 November, closing a chapter that began at Eden Gardens in Kolkata in 2013 and ended with 229 wickets from 64 Tests. The Mohammed Shami Test retirement brings down the curtain on one of India’s most dependable fast bowlers, a cricketer whose seam and swing made him dangerous on pitches around the world.
“I got this [Test cap] on 6th November, and today is 6th November. So, let’s end this 13-year journey here today,” Shami said in his video message, recorded at his farmhouse in Sahaspur Alinagar, Amroha. “I made my debut today, and today I am taking retirement.” The Mohammed Shami Test retirement fell on the same date he first wore India’s whites.
Shami was quick to make clear that this is not a farewell to cricket itself. He will continue to play white-ball cricket, including the Indian Premier League and domestic tournaments, and he has not ruled out playing domestic multi-day cricket to stay fit. What has ended is his international Test career, which has in truth been over on the field for some time: his last Test was the World Test Championship final against Australia at The Oval in June 2023, and he has not played international cricket in any format since the Champions Trophy final against New Zealand in March 2025.
A debut and a farewell on the same date
Shami’s Test story began in spectacular fashion. Handed his cap against West Indies at Eden Gardens on 6 November 2013, he took nine wickets in the match, including a haul built on the reverse swing that would become his trademark. He was never the quickest bowler in the side, but he mastered the old ball like few of his contemporaries, making it dart both ways off the seam and becoming one of the finest exponents of reverse swing in the modern game.
“Today, with a heavy heart and countless beautiful memories, I am deciding to retire from Test cricket,” he wrote. “I’m leaving behind the white jersey, but never the memories tied to it.” He thanked the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the Cricket Association of Bengal for believing in his talent and helping him grow. The Mohammed Shami Test retirement, announced on his own terms, closes the book on a career built on skill rather than speed.
Mohammed Shami Test retirement: the numbers behind a 13-year career
The Mohammed Shami Test retirement closes a record any fast bowler would be proud of: 229 wickets in 64 Tests at an average of 27.71, with six five-wicket hauls and best figures of 6 for 56. What stands out most is how much of that damage was done away from home. Shami took 145 of his wickets in 41 Tests overseas, at an average of 30.33, a record that marks him out as one of India’s great travelling fast bowlers. At home he was even more miserly, with 76 wickets at 22.1.
Even after the Mohammed Shami Test retirement, his white-ball record underlines the point. Shami has 206 wickets in 108 one-day internationals, and at the 2023 World Cup he was the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with 24 wickets at an average of 10.70, including a stunning seven for 57 in the semi-final against New Zealand. That white-ball career, he has made clear, is not over yet.
The spells that defined him
South Africa brought out some of Shami’s finest Test cricket. On India’s 2018 tour he took five for 28 in the second innings of the Johannesburg Test, bowling India to a consolation victory on a treacherous pitch. On the next tour he claimed eight wickets in the first Test at Centurion as India recorded another memorable win. Those were the performances that summed him up: hostile, skilful and utterly reliable when the match was on the line.
Before the Mohammed Shami Test retirement, he was also central to India’s greatest overseas triumphs of the era, part of the pace attack that won series in Australia and competed everywhere India travelled. Alongside Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav, he formed a fast-bowling group that changed how India played Test cricket abroad, turning a side once reliant on spin into one that could win with the ball in any conditions.
The selectors, the silence and what comes next
The Mohammed Shami Test retirement has not arrived without bitterness. Former India coach Ravi Shastri has criticised the selectors over how Shami’s final years were handled, arguing that he should have played more in the last 12 months. Shami was left out of the Test squad named in October for the two-match series in New Zealand, which begins in Wellington on 19 November, with five specialist quicks — Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep and Anshul Kamboj — preferred instead.
Chief selector Ajit Agarkar had questioned whether Shami had met the workload requirements for a Test return, and in May 2026 said the panel had not discussed a comeback for him. Shami, meanwhile, kept playing domestic cricket and performing well with the ball, but the call never came. His announcement, timed to the anniversary of his debut, reads as a man taking the decision out of the selectors’ hands.
India bowling coach Morne Morkel called it a sad day to see him go. The tributes will keep coming, and rightly so: 229 wickets, 64 Tests, and a reputation as one of the finest seam bowlers of his generation.
After the Mohammed Shami Test retirement, his next chapter will be written in white-ball cricket, with a full Indian Premier League season ahead and the door still open to a one-day comeback. The white jersey is folded away, but as he said himself, the memories are not going anywhere — and neither, for now, is Mohammed Shami.
Sources: ICC; Geo Super. For more cricket coverage, read about Usman Khawaja’s claim that the whole Australia team knew about the sandpaper plot and Shadab Khan’s unbeaten 113 that rescued Pakistan against England in Lahore.
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