Former Indian selector, Saba Karim was happy with Mohammed Shami’s return after his final-over heroics against Australia in the warmup fixture on Monday (October 17). However, he feels the Indian team need to further strengthen their bowling attack further before the Super 12 campaign at the T20 World Cup. Karim wants the veteran pacer to bowl at least three overs in India’s second warm-up match against New Zealand in Brisbane on Wednesday (October 19) as well.
Speaking to India News, the former Indian cricketer said: “We’ve to focus on our bowling [against New Zealand in the upcoming warmup match]. I think Mohammed Shami should bowl at least three or four overs. It will be great if he bowls a couple of overs with the new ball. Mohammed Shami has shown that he trusts yorkers. I think he will bowl a similar delivery in the death overs. He will not look to do much. You must focus on your strength and bowl in that area.”
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It is worth mentioning that Mohammed Shami successfully defended 11 runs in the 20th over against Australia. He came to bowl for the final over and gave away only four runs as India won by six runs as well where he picked up 3 wickets.
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“It’s a big thing that India started well against a strong bowling attack in a proper cricket ground where boundary dimensions were big. It shows that our batters are confident. You can only get such a start when you trust your middle order, which is evident from the batting of KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma. You have Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik. When you have such an attack, you can bat well and fully use the powerplay overs,” Saba Karim concluded.
India will begin their T20 World Cup campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on Sunday (October 23) as well.