Team India is currently heading towards the T20I World Cup to be played in Australia later this year. The men in blue are continuing their dress rehearsals for the grandest stage and trying to identify the right eleven for the T20I World Cup. The Indian contingent will travel to Zimbabwe to play a three-match ODI series and then they will fly to the United Arab Emirates to participate in the Asia Cup.
In a sudden turn of events, what has raised many eyebrows is how Mohammed Shami India’s T20I plan has been dropped. As of now, the Gujarat Titans pacer is being considered in the squad only for Tests and One Day Internationals. Various reports state that the BCCI has informed Shami that the team is moving on and that his playing days in the T20I format are over. Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has weighed in on the issue and said that India have better fast bowlers than Shami who can be used in the shortest format of the game.
He (Shami) has been a very good bowler for India for a long time. If you look at his strengths, his Test cricket is probably where he flourishes the most. I think Indians are better fast bowlers than Shami in T20 cricket and he has named only three (for the Asia Cup). So if there are potentially four names in the team, he could be the fourth person. I think they will probably have four fast bowlers coming to Australia. “They still want to bring a lot of spin here, even if the wickets may not be favourable,” Ponting said.
Ponting further said that he is looking forward to the India-Pakistan clash and believes that the men in blue have a slight edge over the men in green and are the favorites to win the tournament.
Team India’s squad for Asia Cup:
Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul (VC), Virat KohliSuryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, R Pant (wk), Dinesh Karthik (Week), Hardik PandyaR Jadeja, R Ashwin, Y Chahal, R Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar KumarArshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan.