[13] The following month, he made his first-class cricket debut against Assam at Eden Gardens, taking three wickets in a high scoring match.

[14][15] In February 2012 his bowling helped East Zone win their first Duleep Trophy title; he took eight wickets in the match and was described as "outstanding, consistently getting bounce and zip from just short of a good length".

[17] He was selected to tour the West Indies with the India A side and "impressed" with his bowling on pitches which were considered to be generally unhelpful to fast bowlers.

[19] Shami was considered to have been the "surprise package" of the tour for India A, and impressed the team's coach Lalchand Rajput with his strength and consistency whilst bowling, as well as with his batting;[20] batting tenth in the first unofficial Test match, he scored 27 runs in a partnership of 73 with Cheteshwar Pujara which won the match for India A.

[23] Shami made his Test debut against West Indies in November 2013 in front of his home crowd at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.

[37][38][39] He was involved in a 111-run partnership for the 10th wicket, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the first Test at Trent Bridge, scoring his maiden half-century in the process and helping India post 457 in the first innings.

[52] During this series, Shami reached seventh position in the ICC Men's Player Rankings after taking seven wickets in the first Test.

[54] During the 2020–21 tour of Australia, Shami suffered a broken arm while batting against Pat Cummins during the second innings of the first Test.

[57] During the 2021–23 ICC World Test Championship, in the 2021 India-England series, on 16 August 2021, in India's second innings, Shami made his highest score and second half-century in Test cricket, with an unbeaten score of 56* in a partnership with Jasprit Bumrah, which helped team India to script a historical win against England.

[67] As a result of his performances in domestic matches, Shami was selected for India's One Day international (ODI) series against Pakistan, replacing his Bengali teammate Ashok Dinda and subsequently made his debut in the third ODI of the series in Delhi on 6 January 2013 and he returned figures of 1/23 from 9 overs in a low-scoring game that India won by 10 runs.

[79] He was in the 15-man squad for 5 ODIs against Sri Lanka in November 2014, but he was replaced by Dhawal Kulkarni due to a toe injury he suffered during the West Indies series.

[91] Shami returned to the squad for the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy after a two-year hiatus due to a shoulder injury.

[92] In January 2019, during the tour of New Zealand, Shami claimed his 100th ODI wicket in first of the five games by bowling Martin Guptill.

[93] As of January 2022[update], the world record is held by Afghanistan leg-spinner, Rashid Khan, who needed only 44 games to reach the mark.

According to Sportstar, this series rejuvenated the white ball career of Shami, helping him to book a spot in the 2019 Cricket World Cup squad.

[97] He was one of the only three fast bowlers to feature in the squad, the other two being Jasprit Bumrah and the white ball specialist, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

[112] Following the series, Shami's ability to bowl yorkers persistently and taking wickets during the powerplay and death overs were greatly applauded.

He played his first match in this series against Nepal replacing Jasprit Bumrah who had to leave the squad and return to Mumbai for personal reasons.

[129] Shami made his debut in Twenty20 Internationals (T20I) on 21 March 2014 against Pakistan in the opening match of the 2014 T20 World Cup and took the wicket of Umar Akmal, to give him figures of 1/31 in 4 overs bowled.

[133] Shami returned to the squad for 2016 ICC World Twenty20 after spending more than two years recuperating from the shoulder injury, but due to lack of form and game time, he did not feature in any of the matches of the tournament.

He can move the ball both ways, as he's shown ample times in the past, and as a bonus, he has the undefinable ability to be unplayable regardless of format when he gets into his rhythm".

[23][32] After being released by Delhi ahead of 2019 season[19][148] Shami was bought by Kings XI Punjab[g] in the 2019 player auction.

[153][154] This was the first time in IPL history that a single-digit score had been defended in a super over and earned Shami praise for the way in which he bowled precise yorkers under pressure.

[171] His wicket taking ability and bowling reverse swing make him one of the lethal bowlers of the world[172] and which is why he has been described as 'unplayable' at times regardless of the formats.

"[172]Shami's ability of bowling yorkers continuously at much needed times has been discussed and praised by several former cricketers and critics.

[179][180][181] In March 2018, a First Information Report was lodged against Shami and members of his family by his wife, Hasin Jahan, citing domestic violence and adultery.

[182][183][184] Shami was charged with offences relating to domestic violence, attempted murder, poisoning and criminal intimidation.

[184][185] The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) withheld Shami from their national contracts list as a result of the allegations.

This was investigated by the anti-corruption unit run by the BCCI and on 22 March the board reinstated Shami's national contract, clearing him of the corruption charges.

[187][188][189] On 2 September 2019, a court in Alipore issued an arrest warrant against Shami in connection to the domestic violence charges, providing him with 15 days after his return to India to turn himself in.