Bhuvneshwar Kumar to replace Mohammed Shami in India's Asia Cup squad

Another setback for Mohammed Shami

The BCCI have stated that Indian fast bowler Mohammed Shami has been ruled out of the 2016 Asia Cup in Bangladesh. They also confirmed that Bhuvneshwar Kumar will replace the Bengal pacer in the squad.

In a statement on their website, the BCCI said: “The decision has been taken to give him (Shami) more time to recover from the Grade II injury to his left hamstring.”

News Alert: Mohammed Shami ruled out of #AsiaCup, 2016. @BhuviOfficial has been named as the replacement.

— BCCI (@BCCI) February 19, 2016

This is the latest in a series of setbacks for Shami, who hasn’t played for India since the ICC World Cup in March 2015. It’ll be interesting to see if India will choose to play an untested Shami at the ICC World T20 next month considering he wouldn’t have played international cricket for almost one year.

After the knee injury that made him miss the Indian Premier League (IPL), tours to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and a home series against South Africa, the 25-year-old was selected for the ODI and T20I tour of Australia. But he suffered a hamstring injury which ruled him out of the tour.

Despite all his injury problems, Shami was selected in India’s squad for the Asia Cup and the World T20 after playing a few matches in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. With him now having been ruled out of the Asia Cup, his participation at the world’s premier T20 tournament is in serious doubt.

Shami’s replacement Bhuvneshwar has been part of the Indian squad for a while now and also represented the country at the previous World T20 in 2014. The 26-year-old has 12 wickets from 13 T20Is at an average of 22.61 and a very respectable economy rate of 6.53.