India’s bowling coach explains the decision to not pick Mohammed Shami in the playing XI

Team India became the first team to qualify for the final of the Asia Cup 2023 after clinching a thrilling win against Sri Lanka, which came less than 24 hours after a massive win against Pakistan in a match that went into the reserve day.

Despite India’s dominating run in the Super Fours, there have been questions raised on the decision to keep pacer Mohammed Shami out of the XI. Shami has so far played just one game in the Asia Cup against Nepal, from which he picked up one wicket and gave only 29 runs. 

With Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah and Shardul Thakur combining well to form the Indian pace battery, there is expected to be a change in the line-up, but only to ensure workload management. Apart from Shami, India also have the services of Prasidh Krishna, who is a part of the squad as well.

India’s bowling coach, Paras Mhambrey, opened up on the decision to drop Shami, stating, “It's not very easy to drop someone like Shami. The experience that he has and the performance that he has done for the country is phenomenal. It's never easy to have that kind of a conversation (dropping a player).”

He further added, “But we are clear in the way we have gone about the conversation with the players and they have shown confidence in us. Players know any decision that we take and they know that it is for the benefit of the team.”

It will be intriguing to see whether Shami is included in India’s XI vs Bangladesh, or the Men in Blue go unchanged into the fixture. The India vs Bangladesh clash will be the last Super Four clash before the big final on Sunday.