Former South Africa pacer Dale Steyn believes it is impossible for any Indian pacer to fill the shoes of Jasprit Bumrah, but something which India will have to deal with at the T20 World Cup 2022, starting later this month in Australia.
The Indian contingent has flown to Australia for warm-up matches, however, they are without their 15th member of the squad as the selectors haven’t yet announced the replacement of Jasprit Bumrah, who has been ruled out of the tournament due to a back injury.
Mohammed Shami seems the frontrunner to replace Bumrah but there is no solid information regarding his fitness after recovering from covid-19. Shami is still at the NCA rehabilitating after testing negative for covid. Also at the NCA is seamer Deepak Chahar, who was ruled out of the South Africa ODI series due to a back injury. Both Shami and Chahar are in the reserves of the T20 WC.
Shami, Siraj. Chahar – who should replace Jasprit Bumrah in the squad?
Mohammed Siraj, who recently bagged the Man of the Series award against South Africa in the ODI series, is also touted to be a strong contender to replace Bumrah.
When asked about who should be Bumrah’s replacement, Dale Steyn couldn’t name any Indian pacer because Bumrah remains irreplaceable for his incredible ability to bowl with great effectiveness in all three phases of the game.
“It’s a tough one. You can hope that the World Cup brings an opportunity for somebody to kind of be better than they actually are sometimes. They perform way better than they normally would,” said Steyn on Star Sports show ‘Cricket Live’.
“So, whoever takes his place, I hope that would be the case for them. Whoever gets selected, You probably want them to raise their game by a small percentage because of the hole that they are filling. Somebody like Bumrah, it’s so difficult to fill his place. He is such a world-class player. India will miss him tremendously in this World Cup,” the former fast bowler added.
The onus will now be on the trio of Bhuvneshwar, Arshdeep and Harshal to share the death overs duty at the T20 World Cup.
India play two warm-up matches against Western Australia and then two more practice games, against Australia and New Zealand, before kicking off their campaign against Pakistan on October 23 at the MCG.
