Bumrah, Harshal back for T20 WC; Shami among stand-bys

New Delhi: A fit-again pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and death overs specialist Harshal Patel were predictably back in the India squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia starting October 16.

India will play their first match against Pakistan on October 23.

Bumrah, who was suffering from back injury and Harshal, who had a side strain, had done an intense rehabilitation programme at the National Cricket Academy and the BCCI medical team has deemed them fit for the marquee series.

The two players, who missed out on World Cup berth were pacer Avesh Khan and leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi, who was pipped by senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. However, veteran pacer Mohammed Shami was back in the T20 scheme of things as he has been picked for the T20 series versus Australia and South Africa prior to the big event and is also among the four stand-bys who will travel Down Under. The other three reserve players are Shreyas Iyer, Bishnoi and seamer Deepak Chahar.

Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh and Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be reporting to the NCA for conditioning-related work during the course of the home series against Australia and South Africa. Bhuvneshwar will miss the South Africa series while Hardik and Arshdeep will skip the Australia series beginning September 20. (PTI)