Former legendary all-rounder Mohammad Kaif has issued a concern regarding team India’s potential as they prepare for the ODI World Cup later this year. Mohammed on August 2, stated that the hosts don’t have a strong team for the World Cup as the team struggles with the injuries of key players.
The Men in Blues are currently struggling without the presence of players like Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul. These three stars are currently under progress at National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru.
The star Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah has recently recovered from his back injury and is ready to lead the Indian side against Ireland in mid-August.
All-rounder Kaif while addressing the press in Delhi, made a big claim regarding team India that at present the Indian side is not looking great on paper with the absence of KL( who suffered a thigh injury during IPL 2024), Rishabh( who met with an accident this December) the biggest attacking factor Bumrah.
The chances of our team in the World Cup will depend on the comeback of these players. The return of Bumrah will give us an idea about his fitness”, he added.
Team India had suffered major losses earlier this year including a big margin loss against Australia in the Final of World Test Championship.
Kaif considers Bumrah a big element in the team and he also believes that Team India will not win the World Cup without him.
He stated that if Jasprit doesn’t play the team will lose as they did in T20 World Cup 2022 and the last Asia Cup.
Rohit-led Team India will start their Asia Cup journey on September 2nd against their arch-rivals Pakistan. The last time they met was in the 2022 T20 World Cup where Virat Kohli stunned the Melbourne Cricket Ground(MCG) and led the team to a nail-biting victory.
KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer to miss Asia Cup?:
The star Indian batters Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul are currently in rehab recovering from their injury and are likely to miss the Asia Cup due to fitness issues, the reports of Cricbuzz stated.
Shreyas had missed the whole season of the Indian Premier League(IPL), where KL got himself injured while fielding during the IPL game.
The Lucknow skipper was supposed to be in the race for the Asia Cup squad announcement, but unfortunately, the NCA reports stated that the event is too early for him.
If Rahul being a wicketkeeper option fails to recover before the deadline for the squad announcement for the World Cup, the team will be left with no other option rather than include Ishan Kishan in the Playing XI. Rishabh has no signs to return before the WC, while Indian test wicketkeeper KS Bharat is the only other option than Ishan he is not considered to be favoured for the One Day format.
Ishan Kishan on August 1, impressed the team with a powerful knock of 77 runs against West Indies in the decider of bilateral series.
Kapil Dev on Jasprit Bumrah:
In an interview with The Week, The 1983 World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev shared his thoughts on the Indian pacer who is currently recovering, he said that if Bumrah is not there in World Cup knockout stages and he doesn’t perform we probably wasted time on him.
He also said that Indian Premier League is a good thing but the league can also spoil the player. He also slammed players by saying with small injuries you would play an IPL game but when it is for India you would probably not, one would opt for a break. He also said that he is very open about it.
Kapil also slammed BCCI for their poor management regarding the workload of the players.
