Internet Desk: The three-member selection committee will have a tough task ahead as they have to pick either Ashish Nehra or Mohammed Shami as India’s fourth pacer for the upcoming Champions Trophy.
April 25 is the last date set by the ICC to announce the 15-men squad for the Champions Trophy and it is expected that India will announce the squad in next couple of day’s time.
The date of team selection is yet to be finalized as some of the BCCI officials want ICC issues pertaining to revenue sharing and governance to be resolved first.
While Ravichandran Ashwin is expected to start his training next week and, along with Ravindra Jadeja, looks an automatic selection in the spin department, it will be the fifth member of the pace attack who will need some discussion.
Ashwin will get into the groove playing the two warm-up games when India land in the United Kingdom.
Death-overs specialist Jasprit Bumrah, swing bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar and speed merchant Umesh Yadav are certainties in the squad of 15 subject to fitness.
So is Hardik Pandya, who will be there as the pace bowling all-rounder.
This leaves one slot in the pace department for which there are two contenders — Mohammed Shami and Ashish Nehra.
While Shami has been a potent bowler for India in Test format, the last time he played an ODI match was during the World Cup semi-final against Australia at Sydney, back in 2015.
In case of Nehra, it was even further back during the 2011 World Cup semi-final but the veteran left-arm pacer has since made another comeback in 2016 in the shortest format, where he has been quite a success.
But there is a slight catch over here.
According to top BCCI officials, skipper Virat Kohli wants Nehra to be a part of the bowling attack. His vast knowledge is a big help for the younger pacers, not to forget his brilliant match-reading ability.
In fact, Nehra played Vijay Hazare Trophy for Delhi and he remains a serious contender to be picked for the 50-over event.
Of late, he has missed a few games for Sunrisers due to neck spasm and is expected to be fit by next week.
Shami, on the other hand, has also not been picked regularly by his franchise Delhi Daredevils, which would have allowed Prasad and his colleagues to have a closer look at his current form.
There is a school of thought that only one among Umesh and Shami can be taken as both are similar — primarily outswing bowlers. Umesh, after a tremendous Test season and a moderately good IPL till now, has clinched his case.
One shouldn’t be surprised if young Basil Thampi is kept on standby, having impressed one and all with his ability to bowl yorkers at will during the death overs.
From Sunil Gavaskar to Dwayne Bravo, everyone has rated the Kerala speedster very highly.
With inputs from PTI.