India have completed all their bilateral series prior to their flight to Australia for the T20 World Cup. After the disappointment of the Asia Cup 2022, the Men In Blue registered 2-1 series wins each over Australia and South Africa at home.
They are still left with questions and concerns regarding their pace bowling attack, matters compounded after the injury to spearhead fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah. Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya are the only pacers certain to start in their first T20 World Cup encounter, on October 23 against Pakistan.
While Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar have done well with the new ball in the powerplay, they have been expensive towards the back end of the innings. Bhuvneshwar has already endured difficult times while defending totals, especially in the death overs. Harshal Patel has been leaking runs on his return in these 6 T20Is – his economy of 10.95 is a big concern given he’s the death-overs specialist.
Who should replace Jasprit Bumrah in the T20 World Cup squad?
Mohammed Shami, who is in the reserves for the T20 World Cup and could be promoted to the main squad as Bumrah’s replacement, hasn’t played a single T20I since last year’s T20 World Cup. He was named in the squad for these two series, but was ruled out due to covid. Meanwhile, Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Siraj, who played matches recently, haven’t shown any positive signs either.
So when Rohit Sharma was asked about India’s plans of finalizing Jasprit Bumrah’s replacement, the Indian skipper couldn’t name one pacer who’d replace Bumrah in the squad. Instead, Rohit played down the issue, saying that the management will have a look at the pacers in the two warm-up matches before the Pakistan game.
“Only 7,8 members of the squad have been to Australia, so we have organised a few practise games. We need to understand what combination we can play. Bumrah is out of the World Cup, so we need to find a bowler who has the experience of bowling in Australia. Not sure who that bowler is going to be, we will see once we travel to Australia, we’ll find it out there,” Rohit said after India’s 49-run defeat to South Africa in Indore.
The Indian contingent is expected to fly to Australia this week. They will play Australia and New Zealand in two warm-up matches.
