Veteran South Africa pacer Dale Steyn feels that Team India is going to miss the services of Jasprit Bumrah in the upcoming T20 World Cup as he feels the replacement player has to up his game to fill in the big shoes. Bumrah sustained a back injury and has been ruled out of the Asia Cup but the BCCI has yet not named a replacement as they are monitoring Mohammed Shami’s recovery from COVID-19.
India selected Shami and Deepak Chahar as the standby players but both are currently under NCA’s observation for fitness concerns.
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Steyn, who is ranked amongst the greatest pacers to play the game, suggested that in a tournament like World Cup, the players have to be better than they actually are to help their team win crucial matches.
“It’s a tough one. You can hope that the World Cup brings an opportunity for somebody to kind of be better than they actually are sometimes. They perform way better than they normally would." Steyn said while speaking on Star Sports show ‘Cricket Live’.
Bumrah also missed the three-match T20I series against South Africa and Asia Cup 2022 due to a back injury. The 28-year-old has a history of back problems due to his slinging unorthodox front-on action which puts a lot of load on his back.
Bumrah’s absence is a big area of concern for Team India as they have been struggling in the death bowling department in recent times. They failed to defend targets against Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the Super 12 stage of Asia Cup 2022. While they also struggled against Australia and South Africa in T20Is during the death overs.
Steyn feels that the replacement player has a tough job to fill in the place of Bumrah and he has to level up their game in the World Cup.
“So, whoever takes his place, I hope that would be the case for them. Whoever gets selected, You probably want them to raise their game by a small percentage because of the hole that they are filling. Somebody like Bumrah, it’s so difficult to fill his place. He is such a world class player. India will miss him tremendously in this World Cup."
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