Mohammed Shami Is Getting Ready For The First Game - Punjab Kings Coach Anil Kumble

Head coach of the Punjab Kings, Anil Kumble has given a positive update on the injury status of Mohammed Shami. The pacer suffered a wrist injury while batting in the Adelaide Test against Australia last December. He returned back home and had been in recovery since.

Mohammed Shami had started light training at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru last month. Anil Kumble says that the speedster is ‘good to go’ and is currently in quarantine before resuming the training.

The former India captain is assured that Shami will be declared fit by the time of their opening IPL match on April 12th against Rajasthan Royals in Mumbai. Shami picked 20 wickets last season playing all 14 games; still, Punjab Kings (formerly Kings XI Punjab) finished 6th on the points table.

“He is fine as far as I know. He is coming to the bio-bubble for the quarantine and he will be out in a few days. I know he hasn’t played any matches since his injury but he is good to go. We are really looking forward to him playing a few practice games and then getting ready for the first game,” Anil Kumble told Sportstar.

We  have options in case we want to rotate a few of our fast bowlers: Anil Kumble

The 50-year-old former leg-spinner speaks about the auction in February where they splurged out big on bowlers like Jhye Richardson (INR 14 crore), Riley Meredith (INR 8 crore), Moises Henriques (INR 4.2 crore). Anil Kumble is happy to have depth in bowling- the likes of Shami, Chris Jordan, and Arshdeep Singh can be rotated with the new overseas recruits.

Apart from Murugan Ashwin and Ravi Bishnoi, KL Rahul will have all-rounders Jalaj Saxena, Fabian Allen, Saurabh Kumar, and Utkarsh Singh at his disposal.

“I think in the smaller auctions, people tend to forget that the options are minimal. Every team wants to reinforce and fill the gaps and since the options are lesser, you tend to spend a lot more on the players. We wanted to have a squad which gives us options in case we want to rotate a few of our fast bowlers. Even our young Indian pacers are exciting. It is a fairly long tournament and the conditions will be pretty hot,” the legendary leg-spinner further stated.

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