Xtra Time Web Desk: The All-India Senior Selection Committee on Friday named Mohammed Shami as Jasprit Bumrah’s replacement in India’s squad for upcoming T20 World Cup 2022. Shami has already reached Australia and will link up with the squad in Brisbane ahead of the warm-up matches.
Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur have been named as backups and will travel to Australia shortly.
It was on expected lines that Shami will replace once he passed the fitness test at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. He was specifically brought into the Indian side after the bowler’s poor show in Asia Cup 2022 in Dubai. But unfortunately, Shami contracted Covid-19, ruling him out of the series against Australia and South Africa. Despite testing negative, he has not been able to come back into the manifold.
The fast bowler from Amroha posted a few pictures of him in hotel room in Brisbane on his social media handle Instagram. He captioned the post ‘jet-lag’. It goes to be seen how quickly he recovers as India will play their first warm up game against hosts Australia at the Gabba on October 17 followed by another game against New Zealand on October 19 before taking on Pakistan in the T20 World Cup 2022 opener at Melbourne Cricket Ground on October 23.
The fast bowler from Bengal will have only two warm-up matches to prove his match fitness. He has not featured in the shorter format for India since November 2021. Add the fitness angle and his lack of international matches is a major concern for the Indian team.
India squad for ICC T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami.