Team India's seam bowling sultan, Mohammad Shami, is set to miss the upcoming IPL season as the pacer recently gave an update on his fitness on social media.
Mohammad Shami underwent surgery on his Achilles tendon, due to which he struggled throughout the World Cup and did not play any matches for Team India after the conclusion of the One-Day World Cup in 2023.
Given the current scenario, Shami is likely to miss the upcoming T20 World Cup in June, as it would ideally take him four to six months to fully recover from the injury.
The big question now is, will India miss Mohammad Shami in the T20 World Cup?
Let's get this straight. There is no doubt that Shami had a dream performance with the ball in the 2023 World Cup. The pacer was in red-hot form, taking 24 wickets in just 7 matches.
But it was in the 50-over format. In his career to date, Shami has played in a total of three Twenty20 World Cups. He was part of the team that played in the 2021-22 World Cup.
The pacer made his debut in 2014, but even after playing in three Twenty20 World Cups, Shami has only made 23 appearances for Team India.
Shami has taken 24 wickets in 23 matches for Team India, bowling at an average of 8.94. Shami has not played T20 cricket for India on a consistent basis, be it his injury, form rest, etc, but it is quite evident that Team India considers him a bowler for the Test and ODI formats but not for the T20 format.
Now another question arises if Shami misses the T20 World Cup: Will Hardik Pandya bowl for Mumbai Indians in all the matches?
Looking at the current situation, it is clear that Team India will field four specialist pace bowlers in the playing XI, with Jasprit Bumrah leading the attack.
Joining Bumrah in the side is Arshdeep Singh, who has been playing Twenty20 cricket for Team India for some time now. The pacer has taken 62 wickets for Team India and will be Bumrah's partner with the new ball and even at death.
The rest of the positions are still up in the air as India hasseveral options for those two slots: Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Mohammad Siraj, Mukesh Kumar and Avesh Khan.
In such a scenario, the performance in the IPL will play a big role in determining which bowlers will make the cut for the Twenty20 World Cup.
Looking at the current situation, Team India has several options to replace Shami in the squad. However, they may not be as threatening as Mohammad Shami because of the skill that Shami possesses.
But "something is much, much better than nothing", as the legends of the game say.