Picture Credit: Twitter/@BCCI
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday announced star pacer Jasprit Bumrah’s replacement in India’s T20 World Cup squad. Veteran pacer Mohammed Shami will replace Bumrah in India's squad for the showpiece event; BCCI confirmed on Friday. Notably, the pacer has already reached Australia and link-up with the team in Brisbane ahead of the two warm-up matches.
"The All-India Senior Selection Committee has named Mohammed Shami as Jasprit Bumrah’s replacement in India’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup squad. Shami has 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," read a statement from BCCI.
Notably, Bumrah was ruled out of the tournament with a back injury. Three players (Shami, Siraj, and Shardul) were in contention to replace the star pacer but Shami was the frontrunner. Although the pacer has not played even one T20I for India this year, Shami has an upper hand with his experience. Also, the pacer had a terrific outing for his IPL franchise (Gujarat Titans).
Shami has played 17 T20Is for India and has talked 18 wickets. Overall, the 32-year-old has 156 wickets from 133 T20s. In IPL 2022, Shami took 20 wickets in 16 matches playing for GT. In fact, the pacer has bagged 78 wickets in 58 games over the last four seasons.
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.