T20 World Cup 2022: The Indian cricket team has dealt with some major blows ahead of the T20 World Cup 2022. The men in blue, who are currently hosting South Africa in a T20I series are set to miss some big ticket names from its squad for the marquee event. Earlier, Ravindra Jadeja was ruled out from the World Cup due to a knee injury and now talismanic pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah will also miss the flight to Australia due to a back injury, BCCI confirmed on Monday.
With Bumrah out, concerns over India's death bowling have surged as the men in blue have not had a great time in the final few overs of bowling. Considering Bumrah's impact of taking wickets at will, former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has opened up on the void left by Bumrah's absence. "Jasprit Bumrah's absence from the Indian team for the World Cup will hurt India considerably. There's no other player in the Indian team, with due respect to every other player, whose absence means so much than Bumrah," Gavaskar wrote in his column for Mid-day.
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The 28-year-old speedster was earlier rested from the Asia Cup 2022 and made a comeback against Australia, where he quickly showed signs of his form. Gavaskar acknowledged Bumrah's impact in the two matches and spoke about who can potentially fill Bumrah's shoes to some extent. "We saw in the two games that he played against Australia how effective he was and how his presence in the team galvanised the other bowlers. Whether he made the comeback too soon, is now something like conjecture, but the fact remains that his absence is a major blow to India’s prospects in the T20 World Cup 2022. The manner in which Deepak Chahar and young Arshdeep Singh exploited the conditions in Thiruvananthapuram does give hope that, with a bit of luck, they can fill in a fair bit of the hole left by Bumrah's absence," the 1983 World Cup winner said.
Team India is yet to name Bumrah's replacement for the World Cup and speculations are going on the names who can likely replace him. Mohammed Shami and Deepak Chahar, who are on the standby list for the event can come in place or Bumrah or the men in blue can also go with Mohammed Siraj, who replaced Bumrah for the Proteas T20I series.
