As the suspense around Mohammed Shami's availability for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy continues to grow, it has emerged that the star Indian pacer was not pleased with Rohit Sharma's remarks during the New Zealand series over his fitness status.

In October, during a pre-match press conference ahead of the Bengaluru Test, Rohit had confirmed the report of Shami suffering a setback in his recovery, which had delayed his comeback to the sport. The Indian captain's comeback had come just days after the star pacer took to social media to bash media reports claiming that Shami had developed another injury.

"Right now, it is pretty difficult for us to make a call on whether he will be fit for this series or the Australia series.He recently had a setback - he had a swelling on his knee, which was quite unusual. He was in the process of getting fit - getting close to 100% - and he had a swelling in his knee. That put him back a little bit in his recovery, so he had to start again fresh," said Rohit before the New Zealand series.

A report by Dainak Jagran has claimed that Rohit and Shami met each during the series opener against Bangladesh when Shami was at the National Cricket Academy (NCA).

"When Shami was at NCA, he met Rohit during the 1st Test in Bengaluru. During their meeting, the two had a heated exchange over the captain's remark on Shami when asked about his current status and availability for the New Zealand and Australia Test series," a source was quoted by Dainak Jagran.

Shami made his comeback to the sport after almost a year during Bengal's Ranji Trophy clash against Madhya Pradesh last month in Indore. Over the course of the two innings, Shami bowled 43.2 overs and took seven wickets.

Shami has played all eight matches for Bengal in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) so far and bowled his full quota of overs in every game. He has taken nine wickets in the tournament so far.

Despite him playing back-to-back matches, Indian captain Rohit cast doubt over Shami's fitness and claimed he suffered a swollen knee injury during the T20 tournament.

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"We are just monitoring him because while playing Syed Mushtaq Ali, he got some swelling in his knee, which hampers his preparation to come and play a Test match. We want to be very careful, we don't want to bring him here, he pulls up sore or something happens.

"We want to be more than 100 per cent sure with him because it has been a long time. We don't want to put pressure on him to come here and do the job for the team. There are some professionals monitoring, we will take a call based on what those guys feel. They are the ones watching him every game, how he pulls up after the game, after bowling four overs, standing for 20 overs. But the door is open for him to come and play anytime," said Rohit in the press conference after India's defeat in the Adelaide Test.

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