India can still include Mohammed Shami in T20 World Cup squad. Here's what ICC rule says
Shami missed the recent Australia series and Umesh Yadav was named as his replacement. With the showpiece T20 event less than a month away, it remains to be seen whether the 32-year-old Bengal pacer will regain his fitness.
The much-anticipated T20 World Cup 2022 is all set to begin on October 16 in Australia. The marquee tournament will feature 16 nations. Eight teams have already qualified for the showpiece event while the rest eight will go through first-round matches to fill four slots in the ‘Super 12’ stage. Eight teams which will compete in the first round are Namibia, Netherlands, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates in Group A; and Ireland, Scotland, West Indies and Zimbabwe in Group B. The winners and runners-up of each group will join the eight qualified teams in the ‘Super 12’ stage.
All 16 teams have already announced their squads for the cricket extravaganza. However, they still have a chance to make changes to it till October 9, even if their players are not suffering from any injury concerns. After the deadline, they would have to seek ICC's permission to make amends.
Results in the last few games have put the spanner in the works and some teams might seriously give thought to making changes to their squad. For instance, all-rounder Cameron Green is not a part of Australia's World T20 squad. But given his terrific performance in India T20Is, Australia might think of presenting him with a chance.
For India, pundits and fans have been backing the inclusion of Mohammed Shami, especially after the pace unit's mediocre performances of late. They believe Shami's pace and experience might come in handy in Australia and the seamer will fare better than other bowlers in the mix. The seasoned bowler is a standby player as of now.
Also, Shami has reportedly been ruled out of India's three-match T20I series against South Africa, as he hasn't recovered from his bout of Covid-19. He missed the Australia series as well. Umesh Yadav was named as his replacement. With the world event less than a month away, it remains to be seen whether the 32-year-old pacer will regain his fitness.
India squad for ICC T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.
Standby players: Mohammed Shami, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi, Deepak Chahar.