Indian spearhead Mohammad Shami was included in the team for Asia Cup and World T20 by the selection committee headed by Chairman of selectors Sandip Patil, BCCI Secretary Anurag Thakur and Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and other members despite the pacer is recovering from a Hamstring injury.
The squad for Asia Cup and World T20 is almost untouched after Men in Blue clean swept the Baggy Greens away 3-0. Pawan Negi’s name was only the addition in the squad.
Shami hasn’t played any ODI since 2015 World Cup where he picked up a knee injury. The pacer was in fine tune picking up 17 wickets in seven matches. He was also named in the Indian squad for tour down under but before the ODI series, Shami picked up a hamstring injury during training session and returned from Australia.
On his inclusion in the team, Patil said, “He (Shami) has been our best bowler in recent times and it was time to take a final call on him. What I know is that he has recovered from the Hamstring injury and has started bowling in the nets. There is still a month before the World T20 begins and I think he will be fit by then.”
A few days ago, Delhi lad Pawan Negi was named in the team for upcoming T20 series against Sri lanka and the young all-rounder found his place for the Asia Cup and World T20 as well.
Negi is still uncapped and will most likely make is T20 debut against Sri lanka starting Febraury 9th. India will play three T20’s. The board has also kept faith in Ashish Nehra, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh and has named them in the squad for the two events.
Senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh who was there in the team against Australia, but didn’t play even one of the T20 was named in the squad.
Speaking on his inclusion, chairman of selectors, Patil said, “Harbhajan has been a part of this team. The selectors, team management and the captain have faith in him, his record and the contribution he has made to the team is great and unbelievable.”
Medium pacers, Jasprit Bhumrah and Hardik Pandya who were lauded by skipper Dhoni for their performances down under also found place on the squad announced by Anurag Thakur and Sandip Patil here on Friday. Also on the day, Women’s team was also announced. The team is unchanged which went to Australia recently.
Patil said the team management had done its share of experimentations during the Australia tour. “We experimented during Australia tour and discussed which players would be good for replacements.”
A lot has been discussed about who is suitable at No. 4, 5 for the team. There was a big debate if the selectors would go with Ajinkya Rahane who showed his capabilities and caliber or with Manish Pandey who got his big break courtesy Ajinkya Rahane, who was injured in the fourth ODI. Pandey held his nerve and was there when the national team needed him the most.
Pandey scored match-winning century and helped the Indian team to avoid a clean sweep of 5-0 down under.
But on Friday, after the selection committee was over and the squads were being announced, the selectors took Rahane’s name and excluded Manish Pandey from the team indicating they were looking for experience players over rookies.
“We’ve been going with a horses-for-courses policy which is serving us well,” Patil said. “Pandey did very well in Australia tour and is a future prospect but we’ve picked players according to our needs. His name was discussed in the team and we’ve tried to look at those who can get us those quick 10-12 runs late in the innings.” he said.
“When selectors pick a team, we always give importance to domestic performance. It is not that we are only looking at seniors; we have looked at the performance, fitness and record of the domestic players as well. We have taken into account all the performances of not just 15-16 guys but all the domestic players and then picked these 15 players,” he further explained.
Among the ignored were the pace combination of Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. While Ishant has not represented India in this format since 2013, Bhuvneshwar had an awful run down under and was forced to return after he too picked up an injury.
Speculation have been revolving about Dhoni’s captaincy and his form after losing the ODI series 1-4, but Captain Cool proved the critics wrong by winning the T20 series and making a statement that he is still the right man to do the job for the team.
On Friday, chairman of selectors Patil affirmed his faith in MSD’s leadership qualities and about people thoughts of him calling it a day he said, “We have no right to tell players when to retire, we have total faith in Dhoni’s captaincy. He is the right person to lead in Asia Cup and World T20.”
The Asia Cup is scheduled to be held in Bangladesh from February 24 to March 6, followed by the World T20 from March 8 to April 3 in India.
Including Shami a bit risky: sunny
Former captain Sunil Gavaskar feels including injury-prone pacer Mohammed Shami in India’s T20 World Cup squad is a bit of risk but the team announced for Asia Cup and WT20 on Friday has “terrific balance”.
“It will be a bit of risk (including Shami). However, this format is short so (he can bowl four overs). More than a month is left for World T20 and he will get a fair bit of bowling in the Asia Cup too,” Gavaskar told NDTV.
Overall, Gavaskar said Shami and left-arm spinner Pawan Negi’s inclusion will strengthen the squad though he wanted a leg-spinner too. Offie Ravichandran Ashwin and left-arm tweaker Ravindra Jadeja are the leading spin pair of the team.
“This is a good team, in my view a leg-spinner would have given more options but selectors have stuck with the same team. The balance of the team in Australia was terrific and that balance hasn’t changed. In fact inclusion of Negi and Shami has strengthened the squad,” he said.
