The T20 World Cup gets underway from Sunday in Australia and all eyes will be on Rohit Sharma and Co, who will hope to end the ICC trophy drought this time around. However, even before the tournament could start the Men In Blue have taken some stern blows in the form of injuries. Topping the list among injured players is team’s premier seamer Jasprit Bumrah, who has been sidelined from the tournament due to a back injury.
Apart from him, Deepak Chahar and Ravindra Jadeja have also piled India’s woes with their respective injuries. Now with Bumrah ruled out and no official word on Chahar, many fans anticipated the arrival of Umran Malik in the setup, considering his lethal pace, which can prove to be handy on Australian tracks.
However, Malik is still not part of the team and former bowling coach Bharat Arun shared his thoughts on the same. In an interaction with former cricketer WV Raman on his talk show “Wednesdays with WV”, Arun spoke in length about the current Indian squad for the T20 World Cup, where he highlighted that too many spinners have been considered for the showpiece event.
India have kept Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel in the squad, who will be leading the spin department. In addition, Deepak Hooda can also chip in with his off-breaks, as seen in the second practice match against Western Australia, which India lost by 36 runs.
“Umran Malik is exciting, he’s got the pace. And given the right kind of fields he’s done pretty well in the IPL. Considering the wickets in Australia I feel India have carried far too many spinners. Somebody like a Umran Malik would have been a great fill-up for the team,” said Arun.
When asked about spinners role in Australia, Arun noted it to be very “important” but was quick to repeat his earlier point.
“Yes there is bounce, the grounds are big spinners have a very important role in Australia but I think three spinners are too many. Because at any given point you would be playing just one spinner in the team and you have the choice of two spinners in the side. Three spinners is too many. That’s why I said Umran Malik instead of one spinner would have been a very very wise move,” he said.
India open their campaign against Pakistan on October 23 in Melbourne.
