Mohammed Shami’s comeback quest hit an early roadblock as a left hamstring injury early on in the Australia tour has ruled him out of the series. The national selectors have announced Bhuvneshwar Kumar as the replacement for the Bengal bowler.
“The BCCI medical team confirms that Mohammed Shami has been ruled out of India’s tour of Australia due to injury,” a BCCI statement said. “He sustained a Grade II injury to his left hamstring, which will restrict him from playing active cricket for about 4 to 6 weeks.”
Jasprit Bumrah, the Gujarat pace spearhead who was named as stand-by for the ODI series by the national selectors, was surprisingly omitted, with the selector preferring to stick with Bhuvneshwar.
It is understood that the selectors preferred Bhuvneshwar over Bumrah since the former was already selected in the Twenty20 side. Despite the Gujarat Cricket Association having been hinted about keeping Bumrah available, it would also have very difficult to get the logistics in place and get Bumrah to join the squad before the first ODI on Tuesday.
The UP bowler was the pick of India’s limited overs attack for more than two years since making his debut in December 2012. However, in a quest to up his pace, Kumar lost his swing which resulted in him being clobbered in the ODIs. He picked seven wickets in India’s five ODIs against South Africa at home in last October at an average of 49.57, at a high economy rate of 7.13.
