New Delhi: The standbys — Mohammed Shami, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi and Deepak Chahar — named for the Indian cricket team for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, will also travel to Australia.
The selection committee, the team management and BCCI have decided that the four standbys will fly with the team to Australia and be available to join the squad whenever it’s required.
Therefore, the likes of Shami and Chahar will be readily available to the team management should there be an issue with any of the fast bowlers named in the 15-member squad, a Cricbuzz report said.
Notably, pacers Arshdeep Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and all-rounder Hardik Pandya — have been asked to report to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) for conditioning-related work during the course of the home series against Australia and South Africa.
Mohammed Shami, who was not picked in the main T20 World Cup, is returning to play a T20I for India after a long time, during the home series against Australia and South Africa.
He last played a T20I in the Twenty20 World Cup in the UAE, almost a year ago when he had finished with an underwhelming six for 140 in five games and a tournament economy rate of 8.84 in those games.
The Indian team is scheduled to fly to Australia on October 6 after the last home T20I against South Africa on October 4 in Indore. The World Cup in Australia is from October 16 to November 13.
–IANS