India loses to Australia adelaide Tests, too, highlighted the wicket-loading of the bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrahbrought again Mohammad ShamiFocus is missing. And at the same time Rohit Sharma The India skipper said the “door is open” for the veteran pacer, adding that he will bring the right-arm pacer into the squad for the remaining games. Border Gavaskar Trophy Subject to assessment by BCCI medical team.
Shami, who is currently playing in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) in his hometown, recently made his return to competitive cricket after a lengthy recovery following ankle surgery.
“There is no doubt that the door is open for (Shami). We are monitoring him. While playing the SMAT, he had swelling in his knee. This hampered his preparation for Test matches,” Rohit said.
Meanwhile, India’s reliance on Bumrah was evident in both Tests. His five wickets in the first innings in Perth turned the tide of the game and he took three more wickets in the second innings to complete India’s comprehensive 295-run victory.
In Adelaide, he took three of the first four Australian wickets in the first innings. When Travis Head stopped attacking, he got time against the likes of Mohammad Siraj, Harshit Rana, Nitish Reddy and Ravichandran Ashwin. Siraj came back later to match Bumrah’s four wickets but by then Head had already done damage with his attack of 140 off 141 balls .
Shami’s bowling from one end might have had a big impact, but it didn’t take away from the quality batting played by Head.
“We didn’t want to bring him (Shami) here when he was unwell. He hasn’t played cricket for a long time. We didn’t want to put pressure on him, that’s unfair,” Rohit added . “We’ll take a (evaluation) call from the medical team. We have to be careful, but he can play at any time.”
A BCCI selector along with the National Cricket Academy’s medical team recently traveled to Rajkot to assess Shami’s match fitness, fueling speculations that he may soon board a flight to Australia.
Meanwhile, in a live commentary during the Adelaide Test, former India coach and all-rounder Ravi Shastri said that if Shami does not play in the third match of the series starting on December 14 in Brisbane match, Shami is likely to feature in the fourth Test in Melbourne.
