ICC T20 World Cup 2022: Jasprit Bumrah not entirely ruled out, says Sourav Ganguly

The ICC T20 World Cup 2022 will be played in Australia from October 16. However, Jasprit Bumrah's injury has become a headache for Team India, while BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has not ruled him out yet.

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The Indian team is currently engaged in a three-match Twenty20 International (T20I) series against South Africa, which would be its final T20I series before the 2022 ICC T20 World Cup in Australia that gets underway on October 16. The Protea T20Is get over on Tuesday, while the Indian side would depart for Down Under a couple of days later on Thursday to participate in a preparatory camp before playing its warm-up games from October 17. With pacer Jasprit Bumrah injured again, his participation looks doubtful, but reigning Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly has refused to rule him out entirely.

India is currently waiting on the fitness of all-rounder Deepak Hooda and Bumrah, as they are nursing back injuries and are presently rehabbing at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. Both have been ruled out of the South Africa T20Is. "Bumrah is not out of the World Cup yet," told Ganguly to a Bengali news channel.

Bumrah missed the 2022 Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) due to back issues and did make his comeback to the T20Is in the T20Is against Australia at home before South Africa. As he is out for now with an injury again, a final call on his T20WC participation will be made official within the next few days, while seamers Deepak Chahar and Mohammed Shami are likely to be called up.

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India would continue its training in Perth until October 13 and also play a warm-up against Western Australia before its official warm-ups against Australia and New Zealand on October 17 and 19, respectively, reports ESPNCricinfo. Notably, Suryakumar Yadav, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Deepak Hooda and Ravi Bishnoi have seldom had any experience of playing in Australia.

India squad for T20WC: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc & wk), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah*, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel and Arshdeep Singh.
Standby: Mohammed Shami, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi and Deepak Chahar.