T20 World Cup 2022: [Watch] Mohammed Shami trains hard ahead of warm-up clash against Australia
Team India pace spearhead Mohammed Shami has hit the ground running ahead of the Men in Blue’s T20 World Cup 2022 warm-up clash against Australia on Monday (17th October).
Shami, who was named as a replacement for Jasprit Bumrah, has not played a single T20I match since the conclusion of the 2021 T20 World Cup.
In a video shared by BCCI on their Instagram handle, Shami can be seen bowling full throttle in the nets.
“Raring to go! Mohammad Shami hits the ground running,” BCCI captioned the video.
Watch the video of Mohammed Shami during the training session below:
Shami was not in India’s T20I scheme of things since their morale-shattering group stage exit from the last edition of the T20 World Cup. However, BCCI had no other option but to name him in the squad, especially due to his prior experience of playing in Australian conditions.
COVID-19 forced Mohammed Shami to remain in isolation
Mohammed Shami was earlier named as a reserve player for the T20 World Cup and was expected to play six matches against Australia and South Africa.
However, he tested positive for COVID-19 and had to remain in isolation which ruled him out of both the series. He had to pass a fitness test at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru before being named in the Australia-bound squad.
Mohammed Shami joined the Indian team ahead of their warm-up clash against Australia and will look to find his rhythm before their first game in the tournament, against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 23 (Sunday).
In the absence of Bumrah, the onus will be on experienced campaigners like Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shami to lead the bowling unit from the front.
Shami has just played nine international matches since the previous T20 World Cup, none of those being in the T20I format.
While everyone is aware of the veteran seamer's credentials, his selection did raise a few eyebrows due to him being out of action in the T20I scene. On top of that, testing positive for COVID-19 denied the fast bowler an opportunity to get some much-needed match practice.
However, the ordinary performance by Indian bowlers in the T20I series at home against Australia and South Africa forced the selectors to look for players with proven quality. Notwithstanding lack of match practice, Shami's experience and class is too valuable to ignore.
India has already played a couple of unofficial warm-up games against Western Australia and Shami wasn’t part of the XI. While they won the opening game, the Men in Blue suffered a 36-run defeat in the next encounter.
Indian squad for the T20 World Cup
Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami.
Reserves- Shardul Thakur, Mohammad Siraj, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi.