'I'll give you proper reason': Rohit Sharma explains why Umesh returned after 3 and a half years as Shami's replacement
India captain Rohit Sharma gave an elaborate answer behind the thought process of bringing Umesh back, who landed in Chandigarh on Sunday morning.
Umesh Yadav's return to the Indian T20I side after 43 months - he last played against Australia in February 2019 - for three-match T20I series against Australia as a replacement for Mohammed Shami, who was ruled out after testing positive for Covid-19, has raised a few eyebrows. With the World Cup less than a month away, India went back to a pacer who hasn't been in the limited-overs scheme of things for almost half a decade now.
When asked in the pre-match press conference ahead of the first T20I against Australia, India captain Rohit Sharma gave an elaborate answer behind the thought process of bringing Umesh back, who landed in Chandigarh on Sunday morning.
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"Yeah, I'll give you a proper reason," Rohit said on Sunday while replying to a Hindustan Times query. Rohit went on to explain why the likes of Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan and Mohammed Siraj were not considered.
"There were a few options. A few of them are injured like Prasidh is injured. Siraj has been in the county. We do not want him to fly all the way, maybe play one or two games. That won't be fair... And obviously, with Shami, an unfortunate incident happened. Avesh was quite sick in the Asia Cup, and he needs some time to recover. So you know from the fitness point of view, he needed some time to go and rebuild his fitness bowling," Rohit added.
Umesh was Kolkata Knight Riders' star performer in this year's IPL, picking up 16 wickets with the new ball. The veteran right-arm seamer proved to be a match-winner for English County side Middlesex in the Royal London Cup - England's domestic one-day tournament before being side-lined by a muscle injury on his thigh.
He underwent month-long rehab at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru and was only considered for selection after getting a clean chit from the NCA physios.
“Guys like Shami who have played for a long time don't need to be playing that particular format to be considered. They have proven themselves as a player wherever in whatever format they have played. And we understand the quality they bring. It's the new guys, you know, whose performance is keenly watched,” Rohit said.
"Guys like Shami and Umesh, if they're fit and fine, they will be called back. We don't need to look at the format. And we saw how Umesh bowled in the IPL. He gives us an option to use him up front. He swings the new ball up front. So yeah, that was the thought... pretty, pretty simple actually. There was not much of a discussion for us. And keeping in mind that, you know, the World Cup is around the corner, we've tried a lot of players and we've seen what each of those players will bring to the table. And we are very much clear about our thought process and how we want to move forward," Rohit added.
