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The Times of India
The Times of India
Sport
Gaurav Gupta | TNN

T20 World Cup: Will take a call on Bumrah's replacement after looking at Shami's recovery, says Rahul Dravid

INDORE: Going by India head coach Rahul Dravid's word on Tuesday night, it's clear that he and the selectors are keen on replacing ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who has been ruled out from the T20 World Cup due to a back injury, with Mohammed Shami for the mega tournament, provided the experienced pacer has recovered completely from the after-effects of Covid-19.

A final call on Bumrah's replacement, Dravid revealed, will be taken after assessing Shami's recovery from Covid, which forced him to miss the home T20Is against Australia and South Africa.

"We'll have a look. We've time since October 15, so, Shami is obviously someone who's in the standbys. Unfortunately for us, he couldn't play in this series (due to being struck by Covid-19). It would've been idea from that perspective, but he's in the National Cricket Academy at the moment. We've to get reports as to how he's recovering, and what's his status after 14-15 days of covid, and we'll take a call. Once I get a report on how he's feeling, then obviously we (I and the selectors) can really take a call on how to move forward on it," Dravid said.

Outlining what they were looking for in Bumrah's replacement, Dravid said, "We just want him to come and play some good cricket, have some fun, enjoy himself and do the best he can. That's all we can ask from people."

'Idea behind leaving early is get used to Australia's pace and bounce'

Revealing why India were leaving on Wednesday night, well in advance of the T20 World Cup, Dravid said: "Yes, we're leaving the day after tomorrow early morning. We'll get an opportunity to spend a few days in Perth, get a few sessions, and a couple of matches there. The whole idea is that Australia is quite unique in terms of pace and bounce on those wickets, and a lot of our players haven't actually played a lot of T20 cricket in Australia. So, the idea was to give us a chance to practice a bit more, get acclimatized. Get some game time in, just practice."

India will launch their preparations at Perth, before moving to Brisbane, where they will play a couple of warm-up games against Australia (October 17) and New Zealand (October 19).

"Having been to Australia I know that it takes just a little bit of time to get used to that pace and bounce. And hopefully once we've practiced there, we'll be able to have discussions around the sessions and a lot of the things, the strategies and how we need to play. Yes, it will just give us that little bit of extra time and like I said, it's important that people have not played a lot of cricket in Australia. So, hopefully that should help us," he concluded.

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