The Team India Update- Nothing seems to be working in India’s favour in the test series against Australia. After the horrible batting performance in the first test match, there is no bad news in the bowling unit as well. Reportedly, pacer Mohammad Shami is set to miss all the upcoming test matches of the series due to a serious injury.
It was during Team India’s second innings of the first Test match. Pat Cummins was the bowler, who hit Shami’s arm with a dangerous ball. This forced the Indian tailender to leave the pitch retired-hurt. The physios did attend to Shami in the hope of getting him in shape to bat. Despite their best efforts, the nature of the impact forced the 30-year-old to walk off the field.
The Story Of The First Test Match Against Australia
India’s horror day in Adelaide has gone from bad to worse as reports have emerged that Mohammad Shami has been diagnosed with a fractured arm. This is a huge blow for the Indian bowling side. Mohammed Shami is a key and quintessential element of India’s pace attack.
According to Sports Today – India likely to make 4 changes in the second Test.
Gill in for Shaw.
Rahul in for Kohli.
Pant in for Saha.
Siraj in for Shami.— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) December 20, 2020
Given the team’s horrible batting form, they would have to depend a lot on their bowlers. Mohammed Siraj is a plausible replacement option for Shami. The Indians managed to score only 36 runs in the second innings, with all the batsmen scoring single-digit runs. After this huge letdown, former Indian spinner gave some advice about the changes required in the team.
What Murali Kartik on Sony Sports Network?
“One more thing that can happen is that Ajinkya Rahane. He could be coming in, who plays up the order in first-class cricket can himself come at No. 4. This is because of the forced change. You can use Rishabh Pant just as a batsman with the X-factor.”
“Everyone is seeing KL Rahul’s form. Despite that, when he was left out of the Test team, there weren’t too many complaints. It was because of his Test form, which wasn’t that good. Now he came back in the team. This is because of other things. When someone sees the recent form, they feel he is in form.”
Karthik gave a good solution to the Saha-Pant selection conundrum as well. He suggested playing both. Though, it is highly unlikely that this will happen. However, it could be worth a shot in the long-run.
What Murali Kartik Further Went On To Say About Team India?
However, he too believes that Prithvi Shaw is the weak link of Team India at present. The former spinner opined, “At the end of the day, it all depends on Prithvi Shaw. He was looking out-of-form. However, team management did the right thing by giving him the first chance? He had done well in the last Test match he played.”
“Everyone could actually see that he did not score runs in the IPL. Despite that, they did not drop him. But in this match, he did not look in confidence at all. So, the question is, will you actually want to put him in the pressure situation again. Or would you rather want to bring a fresh player who does not have this issue?”
Although Rohit Sharma will be available for the remaining Test matches, the unavailability of Kohli is the biggest possible blow. Team India will hope that they can win this game and keep their chances of being in the series alive. They did play some good cricket in the first Test, though they failed to capitalize on it. Let’s see if there is some improvement in the second one, with a change of leadership now.
