Mohammad Shami or Mohammed Siraj: Who will be Jasprit Bumrah’s REPLACEMENT, Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid drop BIG hints

Team India have been dealt a huge blow with pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah ruled out of the ICC men’s T20 World Cup 2022 later this month in Australia. Bumrah was officially declared unfit for the tournament by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) earlier this week but his replacement in the squad has not been announced.

Both captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid are keen on having some bowler who has experience of bowling in Australian condition as the replacement for Bumrah. Deepak Chahar, who is part of the reserves in the T20 World Cup, hasn’t played any international match in Australia so far. That means one out of Mohammad Shami and Mohammed Siraj could be picked as replacement for the Mumbai Indians pacer.

Dravid was asked about Shami’s potential involvement in the post-match conference following India’s loss to South Africa in the third T20I on Tuesday and stated that a decision would be made soon.

“In terms of who the replacement is, we’ll have a look, we’ll see, we’ve got time until October 15th. Shami obviously is someone who’s in the standbys, but unfortunately for us, he couldn’t play this series, which would have been ideal from that perspective,” Dravid said.

“He’s in the NCA (National Cricket Academy in Bangalore) at the moment – we’ll have to get reports as to how he’s recovering, and what’s his status after 14-15 days of COVID-19, and we’ll take a call, once I get reports on how he’s feeling, then we can take a call and the selectors can take a call on how we move forward on it,” Dravid added.

On the happy occasion of Dussehra, I pray that Lord Ram fills your life with lots of happiness, prosperity, and success. Happy Dussehra to you and your family. #mdshami11 #Dussehra pic.twitter.com/wsFk7M1Gj5

— Mohammad Shami (@MdShami11) October 5, 2022

Captain Rohit also spoke about Shami’s inclusion in his post-match interview, stating that team management would be looking at options who had previous experience of bowling in Australia.  “We’ve got to get someone in who's got experience, who’s bowled in Australia, and see what he has to offer. I don’t know who that guy is yet. There are a few guys in the reckoning for that, but we’ll make that call once we reach Australia,” Rohit said

Team India will now fly to Australia where they will play a couple of warm-up fixtures against Australia and New Zealand. They will begin their T20 World Cup 2022 campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on October 23 in Melbourne.