On Monday, the BCCI announced a 15-member squad for India for the upcoming Asia Cup 2022. All the big guns were back in the team, including Virat Kohli and KL Rahul. But a few stars will miss the tournament for various reasons. India’s ace pacer, Jasprit, is not part of the squad due to injury, which will be a big blow for India.
On the other hand, death specialist, Harshal Patel, is another player to miss out due to injury. With these two missing out, India has gone with a trio of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, and Arshdeep Singh as the pacers. Hardik Pandya will be the seam-bowling all-rounder. This indicates that three pacers will be part of the team in almost every match. However, in the absence of Bumrah, the Indian board didn’t give a chance to veteran pacer Mohammed Shami.
Former Indian cricketer and ex-chief selector, Kris Srikkanth, wasn’t happy with the way the team was selected. He even said that if he had been the chairman of the selection committee, he would have picked Shami in place of Ravi Bishnoi in the team. In an interaction on “Follow the Blues” on Star Sports, Srikkanth said that he had picked the experienced pacer in place of young leg-spinner Bishnoi.
Shami played his last T20I for India in the last T20 World Cup. He hasn’t had a chance to play for the team since then. This indicates that the management is not looking at him in the scheme of things for the upcoming T20 World Cup as well. However, he played an instrumental role in Gujarat Titans’ title triumph in the IPL 2022.
Srikkanth said, “In my team, Shami was literally there. If I was the Chairman of the selection committee, I think Shami would have been there. I would not have gone with Ravi Bishnoi. But I still believe that Axar Patel was a serious contender in my team.”
Notably, when India won the 2011 ODI World Cup, it was Srikkant who was the chief selector for India. Furthermore, he said that India should have gone for one extra pacer in the team. He also said that it is good that India is showing faith in Deepak Hooda because he is a good striker of the bowl and can also roll his arm over.
India will start their Asia Cup campaign against Pakistan on August 28 at the Dubai International Stadium. Rohit Sharma will be leading the side, while KL Rahul is back in the team as a vice-captain.
