Mohammed Shami ruled out of the Test series against Australia

The Indian cricket team is already in trouble in the last three Test games of the four-match Border Gavaskar Trophy against Australia as they would be without the services of their skipper Virat Kohli, who would be heading back to India to be with his wife Anushka Sharma during the birth of their first child in January 2021.

Meanwhile, the visiting team received another massive blow as their bowling unit mainstay Mohammed Shami has been ruled out of the rest of the Test series after suffering a fracture. Shami was hit on his bowling arm by Australian pacer Pat Cummins during day 3 of the first day-night game between India and Australia in Adelaide.

The Indian team had suffered an annihilation on the Day 3 of the Test as they registered a nightmarish defeat against the host by 8 wickets. The day started with India having a lead of 62 runs and the experts and fans contemplating about what would be a match-winning score for the visitors but the Indian team witnessed a historic collapse of their batting line-up.

Mohammed Shami gets hit on his bowling arm on the delivery by Pat Cummins

However, the wickets kept falling from both ends as no batsman took the responsibility to score runs for the team. This was the first time that all the Indian players went back to the pavilion after scoring runs in single digits. The seamers Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood scripted victory for Australia as they scalped 4 and 5 wickets respectively.

Batting in the second innings, India was reeling at 36/9 with the last-standing pair of Umesh Yadav and Shami on the crease. Shami had played three balls scoring one run when Cummins bowled a short ball that hit the Indian seamer on his right arm and he walked out of the field getting retired-hurt. This resulted in India declaring their innings at 36/9 to register their lowest ever total in the purest format of the game.

In the post-match presentation, Indian skipper Virat Kohli had stated that Mohammed Shami had gone for a scan. It is now revealed that the scan reports have confirmed a fracture in Shami’s right-arm and thus he has ruled out of the whole Australian series.

India is already without the services of their veteran seamer Ishant Sharma, who is training at the NCA in Bengaluru to regain his full fitness. In such a case, the absence of Shami will be a big blow for the pace attack as the Men in Blue are already lagging by 0-1 in the Test series after losing the Adelaide Test.