Why Mohammed Shami dropped from Indian squad for the Afghanistan Test ?

Indian veteran pacer Mohammed Shami has been dropped from the Indian squad for the historic one off Test game against Afghanistan. Shami failed to pass fitness test at National Cricket Academy (NCA).

The uncapped fast bowler Navdeep Saini was named as Shami's replacement for the lone Test. He is the   highest wicket-taker for Delhi in the Ranji Trophy with 34 wickets in eight matches. Saini was picked up by the Delhi Daredevils unfortunately ha failed to got the chance to play.

It is clear that  Shami has a hamstring issue in the right leg so selectors decided to rest him ahead of  the five-Test series in England commencing from August 2018.

According to a senior BCCI official "Karun Nair and Hardik Pandya were the two best performers in the YoYo Test with scores of above 18."

As per reported in NDTV "The All-India Senior Selection Committee has named Navdeep Saini as Mohammed Shami's replacement in the Indian Test team for the upcoming Paytm Test against Afghanistan. The announcement came after Shami failed to clear the fitness test at NCA, Bengaluru", the media release said.

"The Indian team management has requested that India A fast bowlers Mohammed Siraj and Rajneesh Gurbani attend the training sessions of the Indian team and bowl at the Indian batsmen in the nets. A request was also made for Ankit Rajpoot, but the Uttar Pradesh fast bowler is unwell," the release added.

India Squad:

Ajinkya Rahane(c), Cheteshwar Pujara, Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Lokesh Rahul, Karun Nair, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Dinesh Karthik, Navdeep Saini

Afghanistan Squad:

Asghar Stanikzai(c), Mohammad Shahzad, Javed Ahmadi, Ihsanullah Janat, Rahmat Shah, Nasir Jamal, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Afsar Zazai, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Zahir Khan, Amir Hamza, Sayed Shirzad, Yamin Ahmadzai, Wafadar, Mujeeb Ur Rahman

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