Team India have copped a huge blow ahead of the T20 World Cup 2022 as ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah has been ruled out of the flagship event with a back injury.
While the BCCI is yet to name a replacement, India head coach Rahul Dravid on Tuesday (October 4) dropped a big hint, asserting that veteran fast bowler Mohammad Shami is in the standbys.
Besides Shami, seamer Deepak Chahar also features in the list of four standby players alongside leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi and middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer.
See Also: “We will make that call in Australia,” Rohit on Bumrah’s replacement for T20 World Cup
“In terms of who the replacement for Bumrah would be, we will have a look, we have time till October 15 so Shami is obviously someone who is in the standbys. But obviously, he could not play this series for us, which would have been ideal. But he is at the NCA at the moment, we have to get reports on how he is recovering and what’s his status after 14-15 days of COVID is,” said Dravid during a post-match press conference on being asked whether Shami would be replacing Bumrah in T20 event.
“We will take a call. Once we get his report, we and the selectors can take the call on how we move forward on it. What do we expect from the guy? We just want him to play some good cricket, have fun and enjoy himself and do the best he can. It is all we can ask from people, do the best you can,” he further added.
Bowling has been a cause of concern for the Indian team heading into the T20 World Cup. They conceded over 200 runs in the second and third T20I against South Africa.
“Obviously, you keep trying to get better in all the departments of the game. Certainly, bowling at the death, to be fair, the wickets have been really flat and it has not been easy to bowl at the death, not just for our team but the other team as well. Australia and South Africa are the two sides with a lot of experience in their bowling lineup but they have struggled at the death as well,” said Dravid.
“It is just not us, but yeah sure we have to look at ourselves. We need to see how we can improve and get better, this is one area where we would certainly want to improve because we know, as you play these big tournaments, margins can be really small and every run or boundary can matter,” he stated.
The Rohit Sharma-led Indian squad is due to depart for Australia on October 6 while their T20 World Cup campaign will get underway on October 23 against arch-rivals Pakistan.
(With ANI inputs)
