AUS vs IND: Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami likely to be rotated in white-ball series
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Team India’s premier strike bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami are unlikely to take part in all six white-ball matches against Australia, keeping the four-match Test series starting in December 17 in view. India will take on Australia in three ODIs and as many T20Is – to be played between November 27 to December 8 – before the red-ball series kickstarts.
Team India’s premier strike bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami are unlikely to take part in all six white-ball matches against Australia, keeping the four-match Test series starting in December 17 in view. India will take on Australia in three ODIs and as many T20Is – to be played between November 27 to December 8 – before the red-ball series kickstarts.
With workload management being the prime focus after a busy Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 both Shami and Bumrah, head coach Ravi Shastri and bowling coach Bharat Arun will want to keep their ace bowling pair fit and fresh especially when Ishant Sharma’s availability for the first Test is in the dark cloud.
The first red ball warm-match at Drummoyne Oval is set to be played on December 6. However, India’s second and third T20I will be played at the same time, coinciding with the schedule of the first warm-up match. The Indian team management might not risk Shami and Bumrah play six back to back matches in 12 days.
"If both (Bumrah and Shami) play the T20 Internationals (on Dec 4, 6 and 8), then they will have one warm-up matchless which I don't think the team management will fancy at this moment," a source said. So, there is a chance that Shami and Bumrah will be rotated during the white-ball series. Shami has been seen primarily bowling with pink and red balls during net sessions, which is an indicator of where his and team's priorities lie.
It is likely that both Bumrah and Shami will play ODIs before switching to Test mode and play the warm-up games to get in the groove of Test cricket before the Day-Night match at Adelaide Oval.
The Indian T20I first XI could feature the likes of Deepak Chahar, Thangarasu 'Yorker' Natarajan and Navdeep Saini as the pace trio with Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar in the spin attack.