Mohammed Shami will take the position of Shardul Thakur in the 2023 World Cup match between India and New Zealand on Sunday, October 22 at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala.
The speedster, who can take advantage of swing, is making his debut in this edition of the 50-over championship. The switch comes after Shardul Thakur took just two wickets in his past three World Cup games.
Mohammed Shami has taken 19 wickets in 12 One-Day Internationals (ODIs) in 2023, including a fifer against Australia in the just finished bilateral series.
So far in 11 World Cup matches, the 33-year-old has taken 31 wickets.
In addition, he has 25 wickets in 12 One-Day Internationals at an economy rate of 6.15 versus New Zealand.
Fans on X (previously known as Twitter) applauded the decision to replace Shardul Thakur in the starting XI with Mohammed Shami. You can see the fan reaction below:
India bowl first, bring in Mohammed Shami and Suryakumar Yadav for NZ clash
India’s captain, Rohit Sharma, won the toss and chose to field first in their World Cup match against New Zealand on Sunday. In their lineup, Suryakumar Yadav took the place of Hardik Pandya, who suffered an ankle injury during their previous match against Bangladesh in Pune.
During the coin toss, Rohit stated:
“We’ll bowl first. No reason, we were here training yesterday and felt a bit of dew comes in. Looks like a good pitch, we’ll back ourselves to chase. Quite important to keep the momentum going, forget what happened in the past. Need to be at it all the time. This is one place everyone wants to come and play, beautiful weather and nice stadium.”
“Hardik isn’t available, so even Shardul misses out. We’ve got Shami and Surya coming in.”
Rohit Sharma
Meanwhile, following a 149-run victory over Afghanistan, Tom Latham’s New Zealand selected the identical playing XI.
The two sides are coming off four straight wins in their first four games of the premier ICC event.