Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, and Shardul Thakur will be flown to Australia and one of them will be picked as a replacement for Jasprit Bumrah, who has been ruled out of the World Cup with a back injury. The final decision on the replacement will be taken on Thursday (October 14).
The fact that Shami has been asked to travel to Australia is an indication enough that he has recovered from Covid laid him low for over a month and he is the favorite to be the official replacement for Bumrah but knowledgeable sources within the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) are not ready to confirm it that he is the official 15th member of the squad.
Besides, both Thakur and Siraj have done well in the just concluded ODI series in South Africa and they cannot be totally ruled out of contention. “They have done well no doubt but Shami is the favorite and he should come in,” said the source. Siraj and Thakur are going because Deepak Chahar, who was to travel with the team, is injured and is unable to fly to Australia. All three will be leaving for Australia on Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile, the Indian team will play a warm-up game in Perth and will leave for Brisbane on October 14 where they will two official warm-up games, against Australia on October 17 and New Zealand on October 19 before flying to Melbourne for the first game, against Pakistan, on October 23.
Shreyas Iyer to join the Mumbai SMAT team
Umran Malik and Kuldeep Sen were to travel to Australia as net bowlers but that has not happened because of visa issues and the two youngsters have stayed back in their place, Saurabh Kumar and Chetan Sakariya have accompanied the side as net bowlers. Shreyas Iyer and Ravi Bishnoi, who was named in the standbys originally, will not be traveling.
Iyer, instead, will join Mumbai’s Syed Mushtaq Ali side in Rajkot. Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) officials have informed Cricbuzz that Iyer, coming out of three-game ODI series against South Africa, has permission to join the SMAT side a couple of days later.
