'Mere team mein Rishabh Pant aur Mohammed Shami...' Gautam Gambhir REVEALS his India playing XI for PAK match

Former Indian captain Gautam Gambhir has revealed his India playing 11 for the big contest vs Pakistan in the ICC T20 World Cup 2022. The IND vs PAK match will be held at MCG on October 23, this Sunday. He made a big statement, while speaking to Zee News, saying that he will opt for Mohammed Shami ahead of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Gambhir said that the way Shami bowled the death over vs Australia in the warm-up clash, he should definitely play. The former KKR captain added that if Bhuvneshwar is required to play, he should play in place of Arshdeep Singh and not Shami. 

"India should play 3 pacers. In my view, Shami should play in place of Bhuvneshwar. Arshdeep and Harshal Patel being the two other pacers. Yuzvendra Chahal and Axar Patel as two spinners. Hardik Pandya as fourth seamer....Shami is good with the ball both at the start and in death. He bowled really well at the death in warm-up match vs Australia," Gambhir told Zee News in an exclusive chat. 

READ: Shan Masood hit on head during nets session ahead of IND vs PAK clash

 

The cricketer-turned-politician also said that if he were the captain, he would pick Rishabh Pant over Dinesh Karthik. He said that Pant should play at No 5 and Hardik at 6. Gambhir argued that India only looks at Karthik as a batter who plays 10 balls per innings which is not right. 

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"You don't pick a batter to play just 10 balls. You pick a batter who can bat for long and Karthik has not been given that role or he has not shown the same intentions himself. He only comes to play 3 or 4 overs in the death. But what if India loses a couple of quick wickets? That is when you need Pant as you don't want to expose Hardik so early," said Gambhir  

Gambhir though added that Rohit Sharma may go for Dinesh as has been evident in the build up to the World Cup 2022.