After a long wait, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has finally announced that senior pacer Mohammed Shami will take Jasprit Bumrah’s place in India’s T20 World cup squad. Bumrah was earlier ruled out of the marquee tournament due to a back injury he suffered on the eve of the India-South Africa series.
Shami missed the series against Australia and South Africa due to a positive COVID-19 diagnosis. After being declared fit, Shami flew to Australia earlier this week and will meet the team in Brisbane ahead of the two ICC warm-up matches. The Indian team had left the country on October 5 in order to hold a preparatory camp in Australia. Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur have been named as reserve players and will fly to Australia shortly.
Shami was earlier among the reserve players but his illness put a doubt on his availability for the tournament. The veteran pacer has not played a single game in the shortest format of the game for the national since the end of the 2021 T20 World Cup.
However, he played a key role in Gujarat Titans (GT) triumph in the 2022 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Shame was the Hardik Pandya-led side’s highest wicket-taker in the competition with a total of 20 wickets over the course of the season.
At the international level, Shami has played a total of 16 T20Is and taken 16 wickets in them. Shami played in the 2014 and 2021 T20 World Cups for the national team. He was also part of the MS Dhoni-led side in the 2016 edition but did not play a single game.
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.
