"Honestly, a difficult decision," Indian bowling coach reacts to Mohammed Shami missing out on India's playing XI

Mohammed Shami is yet to play a game for India in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.

It has been a rocking start to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 for the Indian team, where they have registered three consecutive dominating wins. As a result, they are at the top of the table with six points. The Indian team will be facing the Bangladeshi challenge next. That game is scheduled to take place at the MCA Stadium in Pune on Thursday.

India will enter the match as favorites, but they had quite a headache in the recent past facing Bangladesh in ODI cricket. India recently lost to Bangladesh in the Asia Cup 2023, and prior to that, they lost the three-match ODI series 2-1 in December 2022. However, there will be another headache for the Indian management, which will be the place of Mohammed Shami. The veteran pacer hasn't had his chances so far in the first three games. India's bowling coach Paras Mhambrey accepted that leaving out Shami is a very difficult decision.

"Difficult decision, but"- Indian Bowling Coach Paras Mhambrey on leaving Mohammed Shami out of the playing XI

Mohammed Shami is India's first-choice bowler in red-ball format with Jasprit Bumrah. Even in ODI cricket, he is the one on whom India rely to take wickets with the ball. But he has been missing out on the playing XI in this tournament. Notably, Shami is the highest wicket-taker for India in World Cup history among the active bowlers, with 31 wickets in just 11 games. But dropping him is a hard decision to make.

The bowling coach said in the pre-match conference ahead of the IND-BAN clash, "See, honestly, it is never an easy decision. But I think the conversations are around, we had a clear chat with him. Someone like Mohammed Shami is missing out. And I think that's the communication that we have with him. Difficult decision, honestly, even with the quality that he brings to the team, new ball, death, it is difficult to take that decision. But you have to take that decision, you only have eleven on the field."

The last few games saw some huge upsets in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. Paras said that India are taking every game seriously. He also said that the return of Bumrah has been satisfying, and the team had been missing him badly for the past year or so. Bumrah is the joint wicket-taker in the ongoing tournament with 8 wickets in three innings.