The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) earlier announced the Indian team’s squad to take part in the upcoming Asia Cup 2022 edition. However, after seeing the squad, a couple of fans were not satisfied that a pace bowler Mohammed Shami has not been picked.
The Asia’s biggest cricket tournament is back after its last edition in 2018. Some of the best cricket teams from Asia take part in the competition. Team India is the most successful team in the history of the Asia Cup.
A couple of days back, Team India named their squad for the Asia Cup 2022. After the squad announcement, there were a number of fans who questioned the exclusion of Mohammed Shami from the squad.
It must be noted that the Asia Cup 2022 will be played in T20 format, as such, it will work as a great platform for Team India to prepare for the T20 World Cup 2022 to be played in Australia. Of the selected squad, all of the players are in contention for a spot in the Indian team for the World Cup.
Now, while many fans wanted Shami to be a part of the setup, former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting believes that there is much better pace bowlers available for Team India in T20I cricket and Shami is a better bowling option for the Tests.
“If you look at his strengths, his Test cricket is probably where he thrives the most,” Ponting said to Sanjana Ganesan while talking on the ICC Review Show.
He continued, “I think there are better fast bowlers in Indian T20 cricket than Shami and they’ve only named three (pace bowlers for the Asia Cup).” He believes that Shami at the moment is the 4th choice pacer in T20Is for India.
Meanwhile, talking about Shami, he last played in T20I match for India in the T20 World Cup 2021, where he played 5 matches and took 6 wicket for an economy rate of 8.84.
