Kolkata: The first day and the last day fell on the same date.
November 6, 2013, Eden Gardens, against West Indies. And November 6, 2026, thirteen years on, the announcement. Shami, 36, posted a video on social media on Friday saying he was done with Test cricket.
"In this 13-year journey, this cap, this ball, made me Mohammed Shami," he said. "All the ups and downs, I did fall, I did get hurt, I did get injured. But I stood up again for this badge."
The record is plain. Sixty-four Tests, 229 wickets at 27.71, a strike rate of 50.2 and six five-wicket hauls. His best innings figures, 6 for 56, came against Australia in Perth in 2018, and his best match haul, 9 for 118, came on debut. At home he averaged 22.1. Nearly 45% of his dismissals were bowled or lbw, the product of a bowler who aimed at the stumps rather than the edge. In 2016, during India's 4-0 series win over England, he split Alastair Cook's stump in half.
India won 31 of the 64 Tests he played and drew 13. He never lost a Test at home. Among Indian bowlers with more than 200 Test wickets, his average is the fourth best, and he sits 12th on the country's wicket list. His last Test was the World Test Championship final against Australia at The Oval in 2023, and injuries limited him afterwards. He has not played for India since the 2025 Champions Trophy.
The question that followed was whether he had been pushed. The BCCI moved to close it. "However much you praise him, it is less," vice-president Rajeev Shukla told a news agency. "As you know, BCCI does not pressure any player to retire. It is the player's own decision. He has taken this decision, we are all with him and wish him well."
Shami will keep playing white-ball cricket. "Whether it is IPL or domestic, I will continue to play white-ball cricket," he said, and he will turn out in multi-day games if he needs the workload to stay fit. On Friday he was named in Bengal's 19-member squad for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, which begins on November 14, with Abhimanyu Easwaran as captain.
That answers what comes next. Who fills his overs in the red-ball attack for the New Zealand series beginning November 19 is now the selectors' problem.