India's Mohammed Shami, left, celebrates with India's Rohit Sharma the dismissal of Scotland's Calum MacLeod at the 2021 T20 World Cup. (AP Photo) Even though the BCCI haven’t introduced a direct replacement for Jasprit Bumrah in the Indian squad for the T20 World Cup, Mohammad Shami is expected to be the strongest among contenders to replace the 28-year-old in the lineup come the world tournament.
Shami has departed for Australia alongside Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur. The 32-year-old took to his Instagram to post a carousel of photos in flight en route to Australia.
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According to a BCCI official, the team management, in particular captain Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid, will assess these players and then take a final call ahead of the tournament.
“The team management wanted to see all the players before taking a call. Shami was already on standby and after Deepak Chahar’s injury, we needed to send more names as a standby replacement. So we asked team management and they felt that let all players fly to Australia and they will assess the players and take a call on it,” the official told the Indian Express.
Shami hasn’t played a T20I since the World Cup last year, where he was India’s new ball bowler. He has played only 17 T20Is since making his debut in the format against Pakistan in 2014, but has a good ODI record in Australia, with 22 wickets at an average of 26.63.