India suffer massive blow with injury to lead pacer
The visiting Indian cricket team in Australia suffered a massive blow on Sunday when their lead fast bowler Mohammad Shami was ruled out of the remaining three Tests of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2020-21 due to a fracture in his hand.
The right-arm pacer was hit on his bowling arm near the wrist off the bowling of Australia’s lead pacer and world No 1 Pat Cummins, when India were struggling to fend off the ignominy of recording their lowest-ever total in Test match cricket.
Shami received some initial treatment on the pitch and his hand was even taped with a blue band but he could not continue batting as India’s innings closed at the lowest of a score of 36 for nine declared.
India lost the opening Test at the Adelaide Oval which was their first-ever pink ball contest outside home and under the lights, and against Australia, which they lost by a huge margin of eight wickets inside three days. The outcome was certainly a shocking one for the Indian team which had beaten the hosts 2-1 in the series in 2018-2019.
According to a report in ESPNCricinfo, the Indian selectors will be forced to pick one among Karthik Tyagi, Shardul Thakur and T Natarajan. While Tyagi was a part of the touring Indian party as a net bowler, Thakur and Natarajan stayed back in Australia after the conclusion of the ODI and T20I series as net bowlers for the Indian team to help them prepare better for the Tests.
Following the exit of Shami from the remaining three Tests, India are left with Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, and uncapped duo in Mohammad Siraj and Navdeep Saini who both were a part of the limited-overs side before the red ball matches began.
