The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) won’t be announcing injured pacer Jasprit Bumrah’s replacement anytime soon. Instead the board has decided to send Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur to Australia at the earliest. The BCCI has left it to team management to decide on whom they want to take.
A source in the BCCI has said that the team management, in particular captain Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid, will assess these players and then take a call.
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“The team management wanted to see all the players before taking a call. Shami was already on standby and after Deepak Chahar’s injury, we needed to send more names as a standby replacement. So we asked team management and they felt that let all players fly to Australia and they will assess the players and take a call on it,” a BCCI official said.
Indian bowler Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out of T20 World Cup team during T20 cricket series between India and South Africa. (PTI Photo/R Senthil Kumar)
India’s T20 World Cup game kicks off against Pakistan on October 23 in Melbourne.
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The Indian team management had received a series of jolts in the last one month before the World Cup. All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was first to be ruled out due to a knee injury. A few weeks before flying to Australia, the team management received the biggest setback news of Bumrah’s back injury. Later, Deepak Chahar injured his back and hip and was rushed to National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru.
Despite Bumrah’s injury, former India coach Ravi Shastri felt that the team has enough strength and backed Shami to be included as replacement for Bumrah in the team.
“I think we have got enough strength and we have a good team. I have always believed if we make it to the semi-finals, it could be anyone’s tournament. The endeavour would be to start well, get to the semis, and then you have got enough strength to probably win the (World) Cup. Bumrah not being there, Jadeja not being there, it hampers the side, but it’s an opportunity to unearth a new champion,” Shastri said at the launch of his coaching venture with former India bowling coach Bharat Arun and former India fielding coach R Sridhar in Chennai.
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“(It’s) unfortunate,” Shastri had said of Bumrah’s injury. “There’s so much cricket being played, and people get injured. He is injured, but it’s an opportunity for somebody else. There is nothing you can do about the injury.”
Shami has played only 17 T20Is since making his debut in the format against Pakistan in 2014, but has a good ODI record in Australia, with 22 wickets at an average of 26.63. He was also the fourth highest wicket-taker in the 2015 World Cup Down Under.
