Senior Indian pacer Mohammed Shami recently grabbed headlines with his brilliant last over during India’s narrow six-run win over Australia in their warm-up game at The Gabba on Monday (October 17).
Notably, Shami, who was picked into the Indian team as a replacement for injured Jasprit Bumrah, didn’t get to bowl for the first 19 overs. The right-arm seamer was given the task of delivering the final over, and he returned with 1-0-4-3.
There is no doubt that in the absence of Bumrah, Shami will lead the attack in India’s opening fixture against arch-rivals Pakistan at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground on October 23. The experienced speedster has an arduous task, having last played a T20I during the 2021 edition of the T20 World Cup.
While all eyes will be on Shami ahead of the mouth-watering clash, former Indian all-rounder Suresh Raina has opined that Shami isn’t a perfect replacement for Bumrah because players like him are extremely rare.
“I would not call him a perfect replacement because you cannot replace Jasprit Bumrah or Ravindra Jadeja. They have played consistently for India, and they have given performances,” Raina told NDTV.
However, Raina was quick to add that among the available options, i.e. Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur, Shami was the best option.
“But the best option you had, you have selected him. Shami has given good performances, he has been in good form. BCCI have done really well in sending the team to Australia 15 days prior to the tournament. The grounds are big, overall I think the preparation has been nice. We will need to play fearless cricket and show good intent,” added Raina.
India squad for T20 World Cup 2022: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul (vc), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (WK), Dinesh Karthik (WK), Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Md Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh
