Indian Head Coach Rahul Dravid answers the question of whether Mohammed Shami will replace Jasprit Bumrah in the T20 World Cup Squad. India finished their final T20I series and is now preparing for the ultimate world cup. Indian star pacer Jasprit Bumrah won’t be present in team India for the tournament. He suffered a back injury and is going through recovery.
Questions were raised, about whether Shami will replace Bumrah or not. “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.” Dravid said in the post-match press conference after India vs South Africa.
“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.” Dravid further added.
India won both series against Australia and South Africa after the terrible Asia Cup. The team won the series but are lacking terribly in their bowling department. Death over is where India has to put their effort into. Bumrah was the bowler known for his fabulous death over performance, but with his absence there is difficulty.
“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.” Rahul added.
“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, margin can be really small and every run or boundary can matter,”
Rahul talked about Harshal Patel and his ability to cover up the space Bumrah left. He was absent from team India for over two months. He also got injured earlier and recently returned to the team.
“Harshal has been someone who has really performed for the last couple of years. He is coming back after a month away from the game and he is coming back into some tough bowling conditions. It is not the easiest of bowling condition to walk into when you have not played for the last six weeks. I think we really back him, we know he has the ability and the quality.
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