The premier Indian fast bowler, Mohammed Shami has finally returned negative for Covid-19 ahead of the first T20I of the three-match series against South Africa. The 32-year-old posted his negative report on his Instagram account, hours after the BCCI named veteran fast bowler, Umesh Yadav as his replacement for the three-match T20I series against South Africa, scheduled to be commencing on Wednesday in Thiruvananthapuram.
”Negative,” Mohamed Shami wrote along with a picture of his COVID test report. The senior Indian fast bowler tested positive for the virus on September 17. He was subsequently ruled out of the recently-concluded three-match series against Australia.
Earlier in the day, Mohammed Shami had been ruled out of the T20s against South Africa with the BCCI saying he is ”yet to attain full recovery from COVID-19.” Shami, who hadn’t played any form of the game after the ODI series in England in July, had been brought back into the T20 mix when he was picked for the games against Australia and South Africa.
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Mohammed Shami has not played any T20I for India since the T20 World Cup 2022 in the UAE in November 2021. Former India captain Kris Srikkanth said it’s unfair to leave Shami out of the scheme of things in the shortest format of the game.
Talking about the pacer in a recent conversation with Star Sports, Kris Srikkant had said, “Mohammed Shami should have been there. You are playing in Australia. Shami can get bounce in Australia, he has a high-arm action. He can get the ball going away from the left-hander, going into the right-hander. In the first 3 overs, he can get 2-3 wickets.”
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He further added, “Why was he not picked? You have Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel good. As far as I am concerned, the 4th medium pacer should have Mohammed Shami. He has done very well in Australia all the time.”
The senior Indian fast bowler has been named as a standby for the T20 World Cup in Australia next month.
