Former Indian cricketer, Saba Karim has opined that Jasprit Bumrah’s injury ahead of the T20 World Cup 2022 will be a huge blow for the men in blue ahead of the tournament in Australia. Bumrah was ruled out of the ongoing series against South Africa due to a back injury and Mohammed Siraj has replaced him. While the BCCI is yet to comment on the pacer’s participation at the T20 World Cup, sources have indicated that Bumrah will miss the tournament scheduled to be commencing next month.
Speaking exclusively on SPORTS18, Saba Karim hailed Bumrah as a unique bowler and said, “Yes, he’s such a unique bowler. In the T20 format, you need someone who can bowl with the new ball and pick wickets and then can come back to finish his spell in the death overs. He’s extremely effective and plus his match awareness, he’s kind of part of the leadership group for the national side now. So yes, I think without him this will be a massive blow for India.”
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He further added, “But you know one can sense that the Indian team management and the Indian captain were kind of preparing for this. That’s why they thought of bringing in Mohammed Shami and they also have Deepak Chahar on stand-by. So, I think it’s good in a way that India played all these bilateral engagements without Jasprit Bumrah in the line-up.”
Saba Karim said that other bowlers will need to do well in death overs at the T20 World Cup in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah. The absence of Bumrah comes as a major blow for India, especially in the death-over bowling department. Karim said that bowling in death overs won’t be easy but India does have the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, and Arshdeep Singh.
Elaborating the same, Saba Karim said, “Yeah, it does. With the new ball, you do have some viable options. You have Bhuvneshwar Kumar, now what we saw in the last game, Arshdeep Singh can step up. We also have someone like Mohammed Shami. But to bowl in the death overs especially under pressure, you need someone who’s aware of his abilities and he bowls according to that. So, the other bowlers they really need to step up and do the job for India. That may not be so easy.”
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There have been concerns over Bhuvneshwar’s death-over bowling as he conceded a lot of runs in the last part of the innings.
