While a lot of cricket boffins feel Mohammed Shami should have been part of India’s Asia Cup squad, former Australian captain Ricky Ponting believes the selectors have done nothing wrong in not picking the pacer for the tournament.
Ponting feels India has better fast bowlers than Mohammed Shami in T20 cricket and veteran pacer thrives more in Test cricket. Meanwhile, Shami had scalped 20 wickets in 16 matches for Gujarat Titans and had played a key role in the team’s success in their maiden season.
In fact, the fast bowler from West Bengal had last played for the national team back in the 2021 T20 World Cup in a Super 12 match against Namibia. Since then, he isn’t been part of the national squad for the shortest format of the game.
Shami has an economy rate of 9.55 in the 17 T20I matches he has played for the Men in Blue, which is well below the standards.
Speaking on the ICC podcast, Ricky Ponting said, “He’s been a very, very good bowler for India for a long time now. If you look at his strengths, Test cricket is probably where he thrives the most. I think there are better fast bowlers in Indian T20 cricket than Shami and they’ve only named three.”
Ricky Ponting continued: “So if there’s potentially four named in the squad, he might be the fourth man. I would think they’ll probably only have the four quicks coming to Australia. They’ll still want to bring a lot of spin here even though the wickets are probably not that conducive.”
Meanwhile, Jasprit Bumrah has been ruled out of Asia Cup due to a back injury and thus Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be the leader of the pack. Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan will support the swing fast bowler.
On the other hand, Ricky Ponting, who led Australia to two World Cup wins, predicted that India is going to win the Asia Cup.
“It’s always hard to go past India in any tournament, not just an Asia Cup, but I think every time we talk about the T20 World Cup which is coming up, I think that India will be right in the thick of it there. Their depth is definitely better than the other teams and I think India will win the Asia Cup.”
India will begin their Asia Cup campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on 28th August.
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