Why is Mohammed Shami not playing today’s 2nd T20I between Australia and India?

Dixit Bhargav | 06/12/2020
Why is Mohammed Shami not playing today's 2nd T20I between Australia and India?

Mohammed Shami not playing: The visitors haven’t included one of their premier pacers for the second T20I in Sydney.

During the second T20I of the ongoing India’s tour of Australia in Sydney, India captain Virat Kohli has won the toss and chose to field.

The biggest development known to everyone at the toss was around the Australian captain. With Aaron Finch injuring his glute in the last T20I in Canberra, he will be missing this match. The same has resulted in wicket-keeper batsman Matthew Wade becoming Australia’s 11th T20I captain.

“Well someone had to step in [to lead the side]. Happy to be captaining Australia,” Wade told Fox Sports at the toss. Being asked about the changes made to the Playing XI, Wade made public that pacer Josh Hazlewood (sore back) will be joining Finch and spearhead Mitchell Starc in missing this match.

While Australia have handed a debut to left-arm pacer Daniel Sams as Starc’s like-for-like replacement, injured all-rounder Marcus Stoinis has replaced Finch in the XI. It will be interesting to see if the Australian team management opens the innings with Stoinis as he usually plays that role in the Big Bash League.

Fast bowler Andrew Tye, whose last international appearance was in a T20I against India at the same venue, has been handed a comeback after two years as Hazlewood’s replacement.

Why is Mohammed Shami not playing today’s 2nd T20I between Australia and India?

As far as India are concerned, the visitors have also made three changes to their Playing XI as batsman Manish Pandey, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and fast bowler Mohammed Shami will miss this match. While Jadeja was already ruled out of the series, Pandey has developed an elbow niggle and Shami has been rested to manage his workload.

“We will bowl first. Pitch looked really nice in the second half in the previous games we played. They are missing Aaron Finch today, so we want to restrict them and chase it down,” Kohli told Fox Sports at the toss.

Talking about India’s replacements, batsman Shreyas Iyer, pacer Shardul Thakur and spinner Yuzvendra Chahal will be seen playing this match.

Post Edited By: Dixit Bhargav
Australia India India tour of Australia 2020-21 Mohammed Shami

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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