IND vs SA: Mohammed Shami officially ruled out, Team India faces mini-crisis

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Team India star Mohammed Shami has been officially ruled out for the T20I series against South Africa that starts on Wednesday after being unable to recover from Covid-19. The star pacer who was omitted from the initial 15-member squad for the T20 World Cup was put on the four-man standby list. 

Shami's unavailability along with Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar's rest for the T20I series against South Africa has put Team Indian in a sort of mini-crisis. Earlier it was also confirmed that Deepak Hooda won't be available for the T20I series with a back injury. 

Shami on the flip side was initially ruled out of the Australia series after the BCCI spokesperson officially confirmed the news on Monday evening that he won't join the team for the South Africa series. 

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Arshdeep Singh, Shreyas Iyer, and Shahbaz Ahmed join Team India

To ease the pressure, Arshdeep Singh will join the squad after he was rested for the Australia series and is part of the Indian team for the T20 World Cup. Shreyas Iyer and Shahbaz Ahmed have also been called into the squad as Deepak Hooda too will go missing. 

The death-over specialist, Arshdeep will be expected to join Team India on Monday while the rest of the squad travels from Hyderabad. Shreyas Iyer and Shahbaz are also expected to join the rest of the squad by Tuesday.

The Indian team is all set to play South Africa in three-match T20I series from Wednesday, September 28. The two teams had met earlier in June when the series ended 2-2 with the final game in Bangalore. 

IND T20I Squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Iyer, Shahbaz Ahmed