Fast bowler Mohammed Shami is not playing the first Test of the ongoing India’s tour of West Indies in Dominica. Not part of a 16-member squad for this series, readers must note that Shami won’t be traveling to the Caribbean as part of the Indian cricket team in either of the three series across formats.
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The development means that the 32-year old player is one of the four changes made to the Indian Playing XI from the combination which had participated in ICC World Test Championship final against Australia last month.
Apart from Shami, batter Cheteshwar Pujara, wicket-keeper batter Srikar Bharat and fast bowler Umesh Yadav have also not been able to retain their respective spots for the Roseau Test.
Why Is Mohammed Shami Not Playing Today vs West Indies?
Although neither the selectors nor captain Rohit Sharma named Shami in any of their discussions or provided an official reason behind his absence on this tour, there’s a general understanding that the right-arm bowler has been rested in all the formats.
Having played eight ODIs and four Tests in addition to his Indian Premier League 2023 stint for runners-up Gujarat Titans in 2023, Shami rightly deserved this rest. Taking into consideration how he picked 23 wickets across 16 innings at the highest level this year, there is minimal probability of Shami getting dropped from the national team.
Sharma, meanwhile, did talk about needing to rest and rotate fast bowlers to manage their workloads while addressing the reporters at the Windsor Park on the eve of the first Test yesterday.
Other than batter Yashasvi Jaiswal and wicket-keeper batter Ishan Kishan, all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin and pacer Jaydev Unadkat have made it to the Indian Playing XI for this match.
Shami not being part of the Test squad has deprived the Indian bowling attack of experience. For the unversed, this is the first time in a lot of years when all the Indian pacers had collectively dismissed only 88 batters between them in Test cricket.
