Injury forces Shami out of Australia tour

The All-India Senior Selection Committee has named Bhuvneshwar Kumar as Shami’s replacement.

India received a huge setback for their ongoing limited overs tour of Australia after fast bowler Mohammad Shami picked up a hamstring injury ahead of the first warm-up game in Perth.

Shami, who has taken 87 wickets in 47 one-day internationals, was India’s second-highest wicket-taker in last year’s ICC Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

Shami is expected to be out for four to six weeks as a result of the strain which prevented him from bowling in the Twenty20 victory against a Western Australia XI on Friday.

“He suffered an damage through the group’s coaching and is being monitored”. Shami proved his fitness with a couple of domestic matches in December and had even shown some sparks of his old form with a spell of 3/18 against Hyderabad earlier this month. “Based on the medical advice on Saturday, it will be decided whether he will continue to be a part of the squad or not”, The Hindu quoted a BCCI insider as saying. Jasprit Bumrah has reportedly been kept on stand-bye to replace Shami if the latter’s injury does not heal in time.

Bumrah, who finished as the highest wicket-taker in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, helped Gujarat won the tournament. He followed that up with five more wickets from two T20 games.

Gujarat have already been intimated that they may have to release Bumrah for India duties in Australia. India will play five ODIs and three Twenty20s against the Steve Smith-led Australia.