Aakash Chopra Questions India Management Over Mohammed Shami Yet Again: 'The Truth Is That..'
Photo : PTI
Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra has said that Mohammed Shami has to play at some stage of the T20I series against England and that is the truth, with Champions Trophy starting in less than a month and the bowler out of international action for over a year. He reiterated that Shami will need to acquire full match fitness ahead of the ICC tournament.
The third T20I of the five-match series between India and England will be played at the Niranjan Shah Stadium in Rajkot on Tuesday, January 28.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra said that the biggest question around Indian cricket at the moment is on Shami's fitness status.
"Will Mohammed Shami be back? That's the biggest thought. At some stage, he has to play. This month is about to get over, it's the 28th and then you have one more match, but your T20 series will be more than half done by this evening," Chopra said.
"So if Mohammed Shami doesn't play now also, what is the actual status? The truth is that Shami needs to play. If Shami doesn't play, I am personally worried. It's not that the Champions Trophy is starting tomorrow but he hasn't played for 15 months," Chopra said.
India opted to play Arshdeep Singh over Shami as the specialist pacer in the first two T20Is, with Hardik Pandya being the other option. As many as five spinners bowled in the second T20I, with Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Varun Chakravarthy and Abhishek Sharma all taking the ball.
"We are a broken record. We are repeatedly saying, no issues, next match, but the truth is that he will only get ready if he plays international cricket. As it's said, you can only extract pure gold from gold by heating it. If Shami is not playing at all, at some stage, you will start wondering what the status is," Chopra said.
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