Suryakumar Yadav won the toss in Chennai, and unsurprisingly, Mohammed Shami wasn’t named in the India cricket team’s playing XI for the 2nd England T20I. The pacer who has been out since November 2023 has now been on the comeback trail for over six months. It was expected that he’d return after the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season, but a year later, he’s yet to play an international match.
Shami’s injury issue persists
He was given a clean bill of health by the National Cricket Academy (NCA) before the India vs. England T20I series but hasn’t played the starting two matches. So far, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) hasn’t revealed why Shami hasn’t been playing, but unlike Nitish Kumar Reddy, he hasn’t been ruled out yet.
One has to wonder if Shami can’t be fit enough to bowl 4 overs every other day; will he be ready to throw down 10 overs per match against England and the ICC Champions Trophy? There are concerns over Jasprit Bumrah’s fitness already, and if Shami is also a concern, then Team India definitely won’t be the favourites to win the 8-team tournament.
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Jurel & Nitish Reddy out with injury
Apart from Shami, Rinku Singh and Nitish Reddy are also out. The all-rounder has suffered a side strain that will likely rule him out for a month. Rinku, meanwhile, is expected to recover by the time Team India reaches Pune. Reddy has been replaced by Shivam Dube and Rinku by Ramandeep Singh. Dhruv Jurel and Washington Sundar are the ones who’ll replace the two ruled out players.
Abhishek Sharma, who had suffered an ankle injury, is fit to feature in Chennai. Having already suffered two injury blows, it would have been difficult had the southpaw been ruled out as well after bagging the Player of the Match in Kolkata.
India’s Playing XI for 2nd England T20I
Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Hardik Pandya, Dhruv Jurel, Axar Patel (vc), Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi
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