India is leading the four-test series by 2-1 against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2023, Aussies are through to the World Test Championship (WTC) final after avoiding the clean sweep in the series–and Team India needs to win the last game of BGT to be assured of the ticket to WTC 2023 final.
Sunil Gavaskar was very critical of giving rest to Mohammed Shami for the third test match at Indore, but Indian bowling coach, Paras Mhambrey defended that decision.
Paras explained team India’s thought process behind resting Shami-
“We look at the workload of individual bowlers and the way we looked at Shami has bowled a lot. We needed to give him that break. For us, that is also an opportunity for someone like Siraj or Umesh to get a game,” said the Indian bowling coach
The 32-year-old pacer took two wickets on Day 1 of the Ahmedabad test match. He clean bowled Peter Handscomb by beating his outside edge and taking his off stump which goes cartwheeling.
“Looking after this series we have the World Test championship. We need to look at that as well. So going ahead I look at it that everyone gets an opportunity as that is also important. At this level I don’t see it as a problem, you at times have to rotate bowlers and it is important for the player as well,” he further added.
Shami has played 62 Test matches for India and took 223 wickets. The right-arm pacer is also a handy lower-order batter, in the ongoing BGT, he surpassed Virat Kohli’s number of 24 sixes in his test career.
Earlier, Gavaskar explained his analysis of team India’s decision-
“Resting Mohammed Shami was not a smart move. You had 8 days break between the 2nd and the 3rd Test. He bowled military medium in his first two deliveries,”
“The batter is nervous, he is not yet off the mark. If he sees the ball go harmlessly to the keeper, he gets an opportunity to see what the pitch is doing. He can then mentally start to relax just that little bit,” said the former Indian skipper,” said the former Indian skipper.
An absolute peach by Mohammad Shami!pic.twitter.com/KgUpm32gZR
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) March 9, 2023
While at lunch on Day 2, Australia are 347 for 4. Earlier, Steve Smith won the toss and opted to bat first. The visitors are playing an unchanged squad, while the Rohit Sharma-led side made one change, Mohammed Shami came in for Mohammed Siraj.