Mumbai: India are sweating over fitness concerns to their leading pace bowler Mohammed Shami who had complained of soreness in his knee after the third Test against England at Mohali.
Addressing the media on the eve of the fourth Test in which the hosts have taken a handy 2-0 lead, India captain Virat Kohli said that a call on whether the UP-born Bengal pace bowler will play will be taken this evening.
“We are going to take a call in the evening in terms of how he (Mohammed Shami) is feeling with his knee. After the Mohali Test he felt soreness in his knee, so we need to take a corrective call all on that,” said Kohli at the Wankhede Stadium here today.
Shami has been the stand-out performer for India in bowling after off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin this year, with a bag of 29 wickets in three rubbers, including ten in the current series in three games.
On Tueday, head coach Anil Kumble had complimented Shami and his fast bowling colleague Umesh Yadav for bowling very well with not only the new ball but also with the old at the fag end of the day and rattling England batsmen with their pace.
Kohli, however, gave the thumbs up to opener K L Rahul, who missed the previous Test because of a shoulder injury picked up in the second Test at Vishakapatnam.
“Rahul is fine. He and Murali Vijay being specialist openers in the squad will open the innings,” he said, indicating that makeshift opener at Mohali, Parthiv Patel, will go down the order.
PTI