Former Indian batter Robin Uthappa has picked Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, and Mohammed Shami as the three pacers for the team’s opening T20 World Cup match against Pakistan. Uthappa has not picked Harshal Patel and feels Arshdeep Singh will be handy with his left-arm angle.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Shami replaced injured Jasprit Bumrah in the squad but the experienced fast bowler hasn’t had enough game time under his belt.
On the other hand, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been expensive recently and will need to pull up his socks. Arshdeep Singh has impressed while bowling in the death overs but he doesn’t have a lot of International experience under his belt. Moreover, Hardik Pandya will be India’s fourth seamer. Thus, India’s bowling is going to be a concern for the team.
“I think he (Arshdeep) walks into the setup,” Uthappa said on ESPNcricinfo. “It also depends upon how many fast bowlers you go with because you also have Hardik Pandya there. I would ideally want to go with a left-arm fast bowler because that change of angle makes a huge difference and Arshdeep is also bowling exceptionally well with the new ball. I would go with Arshdeep Singh, Shami, Bhuvi.”
Uthappa feels Shami would not be rusty come the big match against Pakistan as he is all set to play a couple of warm-up matches.
“Not necessarily because I think he will get a couple of warm-up games before the tournament itself begins,” Uthappa responded.
He continued, “So, I think for someone with his experience, it’s about muscle memory. I feel once he gets back, he will have a little bit of clarity, he will sit down with the bowling staff as well and figure out how he wants to go about his business.”
Shami has all the experience under his belt and Uthappa added that the veteran bowler will keep things simple.
“I don’t think there will be a lack of clarity. In fact, it’ll be simpler for someone like him because he knows and understands there won’t be too much time. So, he won’t try too many things and keep things simple. You want to keep things simple in a big tournament like that,” he said.
India will play a warm-up match against Australia on Monday.
