shami: India monitoring Shami’s fitness ahead of Twenty20 World Cup

India head coach Rahul Dravid said the team management is monitoring pacer Mohammed Shami’s recovery from COVID-19 as they look to replace injured Jasprit Bumrah ahead of the Twenty20 World Cup.

The Cricket Board of India (BCCI) on Monday confirmed that pacer Bumrah was ruled out due to a back injury, in a major blow to the team, which is also without injury all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.

Shami, Deepak Chahar and Mohammad Siraj are leading in place of Bumrah. While Siraj and Chahar were part of India’s 2-1 T20I series win over South Africa, Shami was ruled out after failing to recover from Covid in time.

“Shami is obviously on standby but unfortunately for us he could not play this (South Africa) series, which would have been ideal from that point of view,” Dravid told reporters on Tuesday.

Shami is recovering at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. The Indian team management and selectors have till October 15 to name the replacement.

Captain Rohit Sharma said the team will focus on players who have previous experience of bowling in Australia, where the World Cup starts on October 16.

“I don’t know who that guy is yet. There’s a few people for this, but we’ll make that call once we get to Australia,” he said.

Originally published at Pen 18