The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced India’s squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup on Monday evening. The 15-member-squad has all the big names from the last T20 World Cup, except the pacer Mohammad Shami. 

After an unsatisfactory performance at the Asia Cup 2022, there were talks of Shami returning to the team for the T20 World Cup. However, the pacer was only picked to be part of the reserve team with no assurances of starting in the playing eleven.

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Fans were disappointed after the Bengal pacer did not make it to the squad and they made their feelings known on Twitter. 

India will be going to the T20 World Cup with four pacers, which include Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshal Patel, and Ashdeep Singh. Many fans felt that Mohammad Shami would have easily replaced one of them as he is far more dangerous with the ball.

However, the 32-year-old pacer has been included in India’s squad for the T20 series with West Indies and South Africa. 

Shami was the leading wicket-taker for his IPL team Gujarat Titans with 20 wickets in his bag, as the Titans went on to win the tournament. A section of the media and cricket analysts are suggesting that Shami has been dropped because he tends to give a lot of runs in the death overs of matches. 

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However, all bowlers have bad days, just as Bhuvneshwar Kumar did when he conceded a lot of runs in the 19th over of an Asia Cup match. 

Another reason for dropping Shami could be the need for player rotations. A lot of matches are coming up for India in the next few months and Shami might have been rested keeping those in mind.