Rohit stated we need to bring in someone with experience who has bowled in Australia and see what he has to give.
Jasprit Bumrah is ineligible for the T20 World Cup. India has until October 15 to choose a replacement, but both Captain Rohit Sharma and Coach Rahul Dravid have made suggestions that Mohammed Shami would be the favorite.
After testing positive for Covid-19 before the three-match series against Australia last month, Shami’s chance to partake in the competition this year was gone. Shami last played in a T20 International in the T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates in 2017. He is now in Bangalore, where the National Cricket Academy is evaluating his fitness, missing both the series and the three subsequent T20Is against South Africa (NCA).
The two fast bowlers in India’s T20 World Cup team are Shami and Deepak Chahar, although the selectors are free to go outside the reserve group if they so want.
At a press conference held on Tuesday night in Indore following the third Twenty20 International match against South Africa, Dravid remarked, In terms of who the replacement is, we’ll take a look on October 15th. Shami is one of our standbys, but he was unable to participate in this series, which would have been excellent from that standpoint.
He is currently in the NCA. We will need information on how he is recuperating and his status after 14 to 15 days on Covid. Once I have reports on how he is feeling, we can make a decision and the selectors can decide on how to proceed.
At the post-game presentation, Rohit hinted that India will be seeking a bowler with Australian conditions expertise.
Rohit stated We need to bring in someone with experience who has bowled in Australia and see what he has to give. I’m not yet familiar with that man. There are a few players who could win it, but we won’t decide until we go to Australia.
Shami has taken part in several trips to Australia and has helped his country win two Test series and one ODI World Cup when he was one of the tournament’s top wicket-takers.
Shami outperforms rivals in many ways as well. In Bumrah’s absence, the Indian team lacks true speed; while Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, and Harshal Patel each have unique skills; they can all be generally categorized as medium-fast bowlers. Chahar and Bhuvneshwar are both swing bowlers whose greatest strength is playing in the power play.
The power play has been where Shami has had the most recent IPL seasons; in the 2022 season, he was the joint-leading wicket-taker in this phase with 11 wickets at an average of 24.09 and an economy rate of 6.62. However, he outperforms Chahar in other stages thanks to his increased speed and capacity for strong hits.
Besides having recently participated in T20Is, Chahar’s one notable edge over Shami is his bat. This was proved by him on Tuesday when, as part of a heroic effort by India’s lower order that also included cameos from Harshal and Umesh Yadav, he scored 31 runs off only 17 balls.
There is a chance that India will choose a bowler who increases their batting depth because there isn’t a true like-for-like replacement for Bumrah—a true all-conditions, all-phase operator—allowing them to try and make up for what they lose with the ball by continuing their aggressive batting strategy from recent months.
After the Indore T20I, Dravid spoke with Star Sports on the field and discussed the importance that batting depth has in India’s transition to a more aggressive side with the bat. The fact that we need to try and have a little bit more batting depth also means that we need to arrange our squads a little bit around that reality.
Although India ultimately fell far short of their target of 228 runs, he still had kind words to say about the performance of the lower-order hitters in Indore.
Even lower down the order, just to watch how Harshal and Deepak, these guys as well, struck some shots for us, made Dravid very happy. The fact that we persisted, struck hard, and maintained our optimism made me extremely happy, Dravid continued. Really good indicators knowing that we have backup players who can come through in critical situations in some of the other games.