Mumbai: India are sweating over fitness concerns to their leading pace bowler Mohammad Shami who had complained of soreness in his knee after the third Test against England at Mohali.
Addressing the media on the eve of the fourth Test in which the hosts have taken a handy 2-0 lead, India captain Virat Kohli said that a call on whether the UP-born Bengal pace bowler will play will be taken this evening.
“We are going to take a call in the evening in terms of how he (Mohammad Shami) is feeling with his knee. After the Mohali Test he felt soreness in his knee, so we need to take a corrective call all on that,” said Kohli at the Wankhede Stadium here on Wednesday. Mumbai medium pacer Shardul Thakur has been included in the squad as a backup for pacer Shami.
Shami had undergone knee surgery after the last World Cup and was out of cricket for 15 months and Kohli said this was the reason the team did not want to push him to play if the bowler was not comfortable.
“Because he has a history of knee surgery, we don’t want to push a player to an extent where we lose him for the whole season. So we will take a call, as I said, in the evening, to how much rest he needs, or he can go for tomorrow as well. There is still a bit of time for that to be decided,” said Kohli.
Shami has been the standout performer for India in bowling after off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin this year, with a bag of 29 wickets in three rubbers, including ten in the current series in three games.
On Tuesday, head coach Anil Kumble had complimented Shami and his fast bowling colleague Umesh Yadav for bowling very well with not only the new ball but also with the old at the fag end of the day and rattling England batsmen with their pace.
If Shami misses the game, it will give an opportunity for swing bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar to return to the playing eleven, considering that Ishant Sharma has also been released from the squad.
Kohli, however, gave the thumbs up to opener K L Rahul, who missed the previous Test because of a shoulder injury picked up in the second Test at Vishakapatnam.
“Rahul is fine. He and Murali Vijay being specialist openers in the squad will open the innings,” he said, indicating that makeshift opener at Mohali, Parthiv Patel, will go down the order.
Promising Karnataka batsman Manish Pandey was, meanwhile, named as a replacement for injured Ajinkya Rahane, who was ruled out of the remainder of the Test series.
Rahane fractured his right index finger after being hit by a ball during a practice session a day before the fourth Test. “The BCCI medical team confirms that India batsman Ajinkya Rahane sustained an avulsion fracture on his right index finger and has been ruled out for the remaining two Test matches of the series against England,” the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said in a statement.
“A ball stuck Rahane during the practice session today (Wednesday). Manish Pandey has been included in the team as a replacement for Rahane,” the statement added.
—PTI
