Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting said that he was not much surprised by Mohammad Shami’s omission from India’s Asia Cup squad. He also feels that India have better bowlers to choose from and Shami is more useful in Test cricket. With Jasprit Bumrah out injured, India chose only three pacers in the 15-man squad. And, they have picked four spinners in Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Ravindra Jadeja, and Yuzvendra Chahal for the tournament in the UAE as well.

Speaking on an ICC podcast, Ponting said: “He’s been a very, very good bowler for India for a long time now. If you look at his strengths, Test cricket is probably where he thrives the most. I think there are better fast bowlers in Indian T20 cricket than Shami and they’ve only named three. So if there’s potentially four named in the squad, he might be the fourth man. I would think they’ll probably only have the four quicks coming to Australia. They’ll still want to bring a lot of spin here even though the wickets are probably not that conducive.”

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While senior pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar will lead the department, Avesh Khan and Arshdeep Singh will play a key part too. Moreover, Deepak Chahar was also named, but, he remains on the reserve player list as well.

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“It’s always hard to go past India in any tournament, not just an Asia Cup, but I think every time we talk about the T20 World Cup which is coming up, I think that India will be right in the thick of it there. Their depth is definitely better than the other teams and I think India will win the Asia Cup,” Ricky Ponting concluded.