Shami, Siraj and Thakur to link up with India's T20 World Cup squad in Australia
Three of the original reserve players - Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi and Deepak Chahar - are not travelling at the moment
ESPNcricinfo staff
12-Oct-2022
Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami will join India's T20 World Cup team in Australia • AFP/Getty Images
While the BCCI is yet to name a replacement for the injured Jasprit Bumrah, the trio of Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur is flying out on Thursday to join the Indian contingent in Australia for the men's T20 World Cup. It's not clear which of them will eventually join the main squad .
None of the other reserve players - Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi and Deepak Chahar - are travelling at the moment. Chahar was ruled out because of a back injury that sidelined him from the just completed ODI series against South Africa.
The main squad left for Australia on October 6 and has been based in Perth, where the players have had a week-long training camp and one practice match against a Western Australia XI. Their next practice game is scheduled for October 13.
India were dealt a severe blow when Bumrah suffered a stress reaction during the T20I leg of the white-ball series against South Africa. At that point both Shami and Chahar were in contention to be the replacement, but Chahar suffered an injury, which made Shami the frontrunner to replace Bumrah. It is likely the final decision will be taken after assessing Shami's fitness.
Shami has not played a T20I since the 2021 T20 World Cup ended in November last year. He has been training at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru following a bout of Covid-19, which kept him out of the home series against Australia and South Africa. He last played competitive cricket on India's tour of England, which ended in July.
After the practice game in Perth on Thursday, India are due to travel to Brisbane, where they will play two official World Cup warm-up matches, against Australia and New Zealand on October 17 and 19 respectively. The squad will then move to Melbourne ahead of their tournament opener against Pakistan on October 23. India are in Group 2 of the Super 12, along with Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africa and two qualifiers from the first round.
India's T20 World Cup squad: Rohit Sharma (capt), KL Rahul (vice-capt), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.