Toby Marshall
Team India is in big trouble ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 as they will be missing the services of their pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah. His back injury aggravated while preparing for the T20I series against South Africa and thus the seamer has been ruled out of the action for months to come.
Notably. Bumrah missed the Asia Cup due to his back injury where India finished in third place in the Super Four round. The Indian cricket betting fraternity heaved a sigh of relief when the bowler made a comeback for the Australia tour. However, with the Mumbai Indians star gone, the Indian team management has a big selection headache.
India opted for four proper seamers in their squad for the T20 World Cup, including the likes of Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, and Arshdeep Singh. Meanwhile, they also have named Mohammed Shami and Deepak Chahar as the reserve players.
Ideally, India should replace Bumrah with any of the two reserve seamers. However, now and then, new names keep popping up in the media for an ideal replacement for Jasprit Bumrah for the T20 World Cup. Amidst all the confusion, former Indian wicketkeeper-batter Parthiv Patel has backed the veteran pacer Shami.
Patel believes that Shami is a frontrunner in the race of replacing Bumrah and his records speak for themselves. The right-arm fast bowler has featured in 16 T20 Internationals for the Men in Blue picking as many wickets at an economy rate of 9.44 and an average of 33.6.
The Gujarat Titans seamer last player for India in the shortest format of the game last year against Namibia. Following India’s horrible loss in the T20 World Cup 2021, Shami was dropped from the team and has not been in the scheme of things for over a year. Meanwhile, there are concerns over the fitness of the bowler as well. He was expected to play against South Africa but was dropped after testing positive for Covid-19.
The 32-year-old is yet to regain his 100 percent fitness. Speaking about the same, Parthiv Patel added that the World Cup is a couple of days away and the two warm-up games can help the pacer in gaining his rhythm.
“Most likely I feel in this squad, Mohammed Shami will replace Jasprit Bumrah. Hopefully, because we have 20 days to go and he has almost recovered from Covid-19. Before the T20 World Cup, India will play two practice matches in Perth, then vs Australia, and vs New Zealand. So he will get match-time. According to me, he deserves a place. I feel he is the frontrunner,” Shami said, as quoted by the Hindustan Times.
Meanwhile, India are not very well placed when it comes to the pace attack. Arshdeep Singh suffered minor back pain before flying to Australia for the World Cup. Deepak Chahar, on the other hand, was ruled out of the three-match ODI series against South Africa due to back stiffness.
India’s squad for the ICC event:
Rohit Sharma (c), Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal
Standby Players: Mohammed Shami, Ravi Bishnoi, Deepak Chahar, Shreyas Iyer
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