From Mohammed Shami's exclusion to Jasprit Bumrah's absence, major talking points after India's loss to Sri Lanka

Since the end of the last T20 World Cup, the current Indian team management, which also rose to power after the T20 World Cup last year, has left out Mohammed Shami from the T20 setup.  He did not feature in the home series against New Zealand, Sri Lanka, West Indies, and South Africa. Shami wasn’t picked for the away series for Ireland, England, and West Indies too.

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Ahead of the Asia Cup 2022, Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel got injured and that was a big setback for the Indian team. Many would have expected the team management to pick Mohammed Shami as he is among the most experienced bowlers on the team but despite the absence of Bumrah and Harshal Patel, Mohammed Shami wasn't picket. 

This move was heavily criticized as India went on to the tournament without any experienced death bowler.

Ravindra Jadeja was ruled out of the Asia Cup 2022 due to a knee injury after playing the first match against Pakistan. Although Team India did bring in Axar Patel as the replacement, arguably as ‘like-for-like’, but Jadeja’s quality as an all-rounder is unmatchable.

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Jadeja, who was part of India’s playing XI for their Asia Cup opener against Pakistan, contributed in all three departments – bowling, batting, and fielding and it was his performance that majorly helped the Men in Blue defeat their arch-rivals, but sans him, Rohit Sharma’s side failed to produce the same result against the same side.

The Indian team came into this tournament without their T20I specialist bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel. They oped just three fast bowlers in the squad which were Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan.

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Arshdeep Singh and Avesh khan are playing their first multi-team tournament at the international circuit whereas Bhuvneshwar Kumar was making a comeback to the Indian team after a long gap.

No matter though all these three bowlers have quality but in a crunch situation, it is what experience matters and the Indian team lacked a bit there in the bowling department.

India fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel were out of the Asia Cup 2022 before the start of the tournament due to injury. It came as a bit setback to the Indian team as both the fast bowlers are considered to be T20I specialists.

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Jasprit Bumrh can nail those toe-crushing yorkers in the death overs whereas Harshal Patel has the quality to deceive batsmen with his slower ones. The unavailability of both these players impacted the decline in the quality of the Indian bowling lineup.