Highlights
- Mohammed Shami has replaced an injured Jasprit Bumrah in team India
- India defeated Australia by 6 runs in their first warm-up match
- India will play against Pakistan on October 23, 2022 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
T20 World Cup 2022: Rohit Sharma-led team India looks all ready and raring to go in the ongoing T20I World Cup. The Indian team flew out for Australia on October 6, 2022, and they will now play their first match of the Super 12 stage against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 23, 2022, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The Indian contingency lost Jasprit Bumrah to a back injury and that certainly is a huge setback for them ahead of the all-important T20 World Cup.
On the road to the Super 12 stage of the World Cup, India played against Australia in a warm-up game on October 17, 2022, in Brisbane. India convincingly won the match by 6 runs, but it was Mohammed Shami who had a point to prove to himself and his selection in the side. In one of its kind of move, skipper Rohit Sharma held Shami back till the last over and when he handed him the ball, the speedster did not disappoint. Shami scalped 3 wickets and conceded 4 runs in his quota of one over.
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Rohit has now opened up on his decision and he said:
Honestly, he is coming back after a long time. So we just wanted to give him an over. This was always the plan from the beginning. He comes and bowls at the death. We know how lethal he can be with the new ball. We just wanted to give him a little bit of a challenge, coming and bowling that death over and we saw what it was
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After all the conjecture around Jasprit Bumrah and his fitness, the Indian team management inducted Mohammed Shami in the final squad. Prior to this, the right-arm pacer was a traveling reserve in the World Cup squad. Interestingly Mohammed Shami hasn't played any international T20I for India after the conclusion of the 2021 ICC T20 World Cup. Murmurs were rife that India was considering Mohammed Shami only for the One Day Internationals and the Test format, but injuries to Deepak Chahar and Jasprit Bumrah forced the Indian team management to rope in Shami and throw him in the mix as far as the 2022 edition of the T20 World Cup is considered.
