IND vs SA- Replacement announced for Bumrah

Jasprit Bumrah has been ruled out of the South Africa T20Is because of back injury. BCCI has announced a replacement for the Indian pacer.

Mohammad Siraj will take his place in the final two T20Is. However, it will be interesting to see if he would get any opportunities considering how good the Indian pacers went in the last game.

Siraj last featured in a T20I for India in Februray against Sri Lanka. He was seen as a specialist red-ball bowler for the team for a while now.

In his career, he has featured in 5 T20Is and has five wickets with an economy rate of 10.45.

Siraj isn’t the only late addition to the squad. Just before the series opener, Shreyas Iyer, Shahbaz Ahmed and Umesh Yadav were also included in the side.

Iyer came in for the injured Deepak Hooda, who is also under the supervision of the BCCI’s medical staff at the NCA, while Umesh filled in for Mohammed Shami, who is recuperating from Covid-19 having returned a negative test. Shahbaz, meanwhile, replaced Hardik Pandya, who is undergoing “conditioning-related work” at the NCA.

Guwahati will host the 2nd T20I while Indore will host the 3rd T20I. After that, India and South Africa will play in ODIs before leaving for the World Cup.

India squad for 2nd and 3rd T20Is: Rohit Sharma (capt), KL Rahul (vice-capt), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Umesh Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Shahbaz Ahmed, Mohammed Siraj