Most people found Shami’s exclusion from the Asia Cup surprising. But not Australia’s legendary cricketer Ricky Ponting, who responded to a question about Shami’s future in the format and potential comeback for the T20 World Cup later in October in a fairly straightforward answer.
Experts and veterans urged experienced India bowler Mohammed Shami to make a return to the side for the next Asia Cup event after missing every T20I series for India since the 2021 World Cup. Therefore, most people found his omission astonishing. At the T20 World Cup in the UAE in November of last year, Shami last appeared for India in a T20 International match against Namibia. Since then, India has given 11 fast bowlers an opportunity to impress, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar getting the most reps while Shami received none.
While Shami has been an effective bowler for India in the Test format, Ponting said in an interview with Sanjana Ganesan for The ICC Review that the team has a stronger talent pool to choose from when it comes to T20 cricket.
“He’s been a very, very good bowler for India for a long time now. If you look at his strengths, his 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 (for the Asia Cup). So if there’s potentially four named in the squad he might be the fourth man in.”
While Shami’s absence from the Asia Cup competition would indicate that India wants to bring the pacer along for the T20 World Cup as well, with injured Jasprit Bumrah the sole addition, Ponting believes that it’s likely the management will try to fit Shami in for the Australian conditions.
He further explained, “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.”
