Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has requested the team management to select Mohammed Siraj as the replacement for injured speedster Jasprit Bumrah for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia.
Notably, India’s pace spearhead Bumrah won’t be available for the T20 World Cup and that will certainly affect their pace attack. Initially, Mohammed Shami and Deepak Chahar were named in the reserves. However, Chahar suffered another injury, leaving Shami alone in the pecking order.
Reportedly Mohammed Siraj has been added to the reserve list after his superlative returns in the series against South Africa. In the wake of it, Gavaskar backed Siraj ahead of Shami to take Bumrah’s place.
“I’d go for Siraj because he has been bowling well; Shami has not played for a while. And to hit your steps straight away in a World Cup, yes, there are a couple of warm-up matches,” Sunil Gavaskar told Star Sports.
“As of now, nobody has been selected as the 15th player. I don’t know…has he gone with the team to Australia? He hasn’t gone. So he has played no cricket. And that’s a concern,” the veteran further added.
Shami, Siraj and Shardul to fly out for Australia tomorrow. None of the other reserves to fly out – Deepak Chahar also out due to injury.
The team wants to take a call on Bumrah’s replacement after assessing them but Shami clear front runner @sports_tak— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) October 12, 2022
However, in the ODI series against South Africa, Mohammed Siraj earned his maiden Player of the Series award and he also looked in good rhythm throughout the series as well. He returned with five wickets and led the pace attack from the front.
“Your stamina can be a little bit of suspect” – Sunil Gavaskar on Mohammed Shami’s return after COVID-19
Mohammed Shami, who is in the standbys and is the front-runner to join Team India in Australia, has not played any cricket since he was tested Covid-19 positive just before the T2OI series against South Africa in September.
“No doubting his quality. Just the fact that he (Shami) has not played any cricket. It’s never easy to come back after Covid. Your stamina can be a little bit of suspect – I know it’s a four-over game in T20I cricket. But look at the way Siraj has been bowling. He’s bowling brilliantly,” Sunil Gavaskar concluded.
However, India will open their T20 World Cup campaign against their arch-rival Pakistan at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on October 23 and, it can be expected that a cracking match is on the cards as well.
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