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Should India play Shami ahead of Nehra?

India head into the third Test of their series against New Zealand with the series all wrapped up and as favourites for a clean sweep. (NAPARAZZI / CC BY-SA 2.0)
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14th March, 2016
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Since Ashish Nehra’s surprising selection for the tour of Australia earlier this year, his line and length bowling has been accurate, picking up top-order wickets.

MS Dhoni praised the old horse, saying Nehra is a smart cricketer who uses his brain to plan out a batsman’s dismissal.

With his powerful performances, Nehra cemented his place in World Cup T20 tournament.

While announcing the T20 squad for the Australian tour, the Indian selectors also included Mohammed Shami.

Although his selection was a bit of surprise, considering he had not played competitive cricket since the 2015 World Cup because of a knee injury, they believed a fit-again Shami would be an advantage in the bowling unit, considering his ability to swing the ball late, and knack for bowling yorkers at the death.

The belief unfortunately was short-lived, as Shami again injured his hamstring and had to fly back to India before series started.

During the Asia Cup in Bangladesh, Shami worked on his hamstring injury and declared himself fit and available again. The Indian selectors and captain tested Shami out, and in the two warm-up matches against the West Indies and South Africa he bowled without any pain or discomfort, picking up two wickets in each game.

Although the Indian playing XI is pretty much settled to face New Zealand on March 15, they may select Shami ahead of Nehra to see how he goes.

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Shami proved himself in the 2015 World Cup by taking wickets with his pace, bounce, reverse swing and yorkers, but he needs more match practice to regain form and rhythm. He has to prove he is 100 per cent recovered from his injuries by bowling long spells in the nets before he is selected to play for the national side.

Shami could play if Nehra, Bumrah or any other bowler gets injured or is rested, but he cannot come in at the expense of an in-form veteran bowler who has shown great control in his line-length bowling and wicket taking ability at the death.

For now, it should be Nehra walking onto the ground in India’s match against New Zealand.

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