New Delhi: There were unending debates over Mohammad Shami’s exclusion from India’s 15-men squad for the T20 World Cup 2022. While the right-arm quick was named among the traveling reserves, many believed that he should have gotten a spot in the final mix.

But before the team could board the flight to Australia, it was found that Jasprit Bumrah won’t be available due to injury and a few days later, Shami was there in the dressing room as a like-for-like replacement.

Rohit Sharma hails Mohammad Shami, says…

Skipper Rohit Sharma at the press-match presentation said, “Honestly, he is coming back after a long time. So we just wanted to give him an over. This was always the plan from the beginning. He comes and bowls at the death. We know how lethal he can be with the new ball. We just wanted to give him a little bit of a challenge, coming and bowling that death over and we saw what it was.”

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“There is definitely room for improvement. I am sure we are on it, but I want to see more consistency in terms of where you want to pitch the ball. You know, when you play back home and when you play in Australian conditions, you have to change your tactics, change your lengths a little bit. Sometimes, keeping it simple and hitting the ball hard on the deck will be a good option.”

“It is something we’ve been working on, speaking to the guys about it. But overall, it was a good game for us. As I said, it was a good pitch. They had a decent partnership in the middle, which put pressure on us a little bit. But our last three-four overs were really good,” he added.

“We batted well, towards the end we could have added 10-15 more. We wanted to stay till the end, which Surya did. It was a good pitch where you could trust the bounce which our batters did. You have to be smart while playing with big boundaries. Getting them is important but getting singles and twos to accumulate 8-9 in an over is just as key. We have focused on that since Perth,” Rohit said.

The Men in Blue will next face New Zealand in their next practice game at the same venue on Wednesday.

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India win against Australia by 6 runs

Today, team India took on Australia in a pre-tournament warm-up game where Shami majorly acted as the 12th man. But as the game went approached a close finish, Rohit Sharma decided to have the services of one of his senior pacers.

While chasing 187, Australia needed 11 runs in the final six balls. Shami came into the attack and was bowling the very first over in the game. After conceding 4 runs off the first two deliveries, he won four dismissals in a row to stun the reigning World Champions.

He got Pat Cummins caught at the long-on boundary, ran Ashton Agar out, and then balled Josh Inglis and Kane Richardson to return figures of 3 for 4 in just one over.

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