The Indian cricket team has just seven days to gear up for their opening match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022. The Rohit Sharma-led side will start practising in Brisbane from Sunday with Mohammed Shami to join the squad after being flown recently to Australia as the replacement from injured Jasprit Bumrah.
The absence of Bumrah does leave a dent in India’s pace attack but in Shami India have an experienced bowler capable of holding his own in a major tournament.
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India’s pace attack comprises Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Shami and Harshal Patel alongside allrounder Hardik Pandya.
There will be three frontline pacers in the eleven supported by Pandya and former India opener Robin Uthappa feels that the young Arshdeep will be his automatic pick considering the different dimension he adds to the attack with his left-arm bowling.
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And Uthappa, who was part of the India squad that won the World T20 in 2007, has picked Shami, Bhuvneshwar and Arshdeep as part of his first-choice pace attack.
“I think he (Arshdeep) walks into the setup," Uthappa said on ESPNcricinfo. “It also depends upon how many fast bowlers you go with because you also have Hardik Pandya there. I would ideally want to go with a left-arm fast bowler because that change of angle makes a huge difference and Arshdeep is also bowling exceptionally well with the new ball. I would go with Arshdeep Singh, Shami, Bhuvi."
Shami may have put up his case with eye-catching performance in IPL 2022 but the fact remains that he hasn’t played a T20I since the world cup last year. And add to it, he hasn’t played any competitive match since July this year either.
So will Shami be a bit rusty considering he lacks match practice?
“Not necessarily because I think he will get a couple of warm-up games before the tournament itself begins," Uthappa responded.
He continued, “So, I think for someone with his experience, it’s about muscle memory. I feel once he gets back, he will have a little bit of clarity, he will sit down with the bowling staff as well and figure out how he wants to go about his business."
Uthappa is also sure that Shami knows what to do and will try to ‘keep things simple’.
“I don’t think there will be a lack of clarity. In fact, it’ll be simpler for someone like him because he knows and understands there won’t be too much time. So, he won’t try too many things and keep things simple. You want to keep things simple in a big tournament like that," he said.
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