India were compelled to leave Jasprit Bumrah out of their playing XI for the T20 World Cup opener against the USA at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, as the star pacer continues to recover from a viral fever. Mohammed Siraj stepped in to partner Arshdeep Singh in the pace attack, with Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube set to share the remaining seam-bowling duties.
Notably, Siraj returned to the T20I scheme of things for the first time in nearly two years. He replaced Harshit Rana in the squad, who is ruled out of the competition, owing to a knee injury. At one point, it looked like the team management would replace him with someone from the India A squad, but they called back Siraj to bank on his experience.
His partnership with Arshdeep will be key for India against USA as India will look forward to starting the campaign with not just a win but a statement. Meanwhile, captain Suryakumar Yadav has confirmed Bumrah’s viral fever, stating that it's unfortunate for him.
"We have Washi missing out, Sanju missing out. Unfortunately Bumrah is not well so Siraj is playing," Suryakumar said after the toss.
USA win toss, elect to bowl first
USA captain Monank Patel won the toss in Mumbai and elected to field first. Suryakumar, however, wasn’t disappointed with it, stating that the team would have batted first regardless. He admitted that there’s a little bit of pressure on the team but the goal is to play the same brand of cricket as they have been playing.
“We were looking to bat first. It looks good here. I played a lot of cricket here. There's a wind around as well, so I don't think there'll be a lot of dew later on. Of course there'll be a little bit of pressure. We can't run away from that fact, but then new tournament, we want to play the same way how we've been playing in the last one or two years and continue the same thing. It's live before the game starts and I'm sure when we start batting, it will be more wilder,” Suryakumar said.
India (Playing XI): Ishan Kishan (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Varun Chakaravarthy
USA (Playing XI): Saiteja Mukkamalla, Andries Gous (wk), Monank Patel (c), Milind Kumar, Sanjay Krishnamurthi, Harmeet Singh, Shubham Ranjane, Mohammad Mohsin, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Saurabh Netravalkar, Ali Khan
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