The Indian cricket team must be wondering what they must do to keep a settled squad as the BCCI confirmed that Manish Pandey has replaced Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul Thakur has been roped in as back up for Mohammed Shami for the fourth Test against England at the Wankhede stadium, Mumbai from the 8th of December.
Earlier in the day, Virat Kohli took out time to answer questions from the media and alluded to the fact that Mohammed Shami is a big doubt for the Test having damaged his knee in the third Test at Mohali. The Indian captain said that the seamer had felt ‘soreness in his knee’ after the game and the team management is keen on preserving Shami.
Shami who returned after an 18-month spell out of the squad due to a knee injury has been in sparkling form ever since his return, but Kohli mentioned that it is the team’s responsibility to monitor his workload closely.
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The Indian team will provide us with an update on Shami’s situation after testing his fitness today evening.
Further, the BCCI tweeted that Ajinkya Rahane who hails from Mumbai, won’t be part of the fourth Test that will be played at his home ground. He was hit on the right index finger while practicing today.
Ajinkya Rahane has been one of India’s star players over the last 24 months but has struggled against England in the three Tests so far. A total of 63 runs from 5 innings is way below the standards that the right-hander has set for himself.
Manish Pandey comes in for Rahane. The right-handed top order batsman is yet to make his breakthrough in the Test squad but his career is currently on a high after featuring in a number of ODIs for India recently. He shot to prominence when he became the first batsman to smash a century in the Indian Premier League.
Shardul Thakur, on the other hand, was in the Indian squad for the tour of the Caribbean but was relegated to a role on the bench for the entirety of the tour. Shardul loves to run in and hit the deck hard while focusing on swing bowling to exploit weaknesses in the batsmen’s armour.
Virat Kohli will hope that these changes don’t affect the team’s chances as they look to take a 3 – 0 lead in the 5 match series.
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