India are without Arshdeep Singh for the third T20I of the five-match series against England, at Rajkot - here's why.
How has Arshdeep performed in the IND vs ENG T20Is so far?
India came to Rajkot with a 2-0 lead in the five-match T20I series against England. They chased 133 in 12.5 overs to win by seven wickets at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, and 166 in 19.2 overs to win by two wickets at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai.
Arshdeep returned 4-0-17-2 in the first match and 4-0-40-1 in the second. All three wickets were of openers – Phil Salt in both matches, and Ben Duckett in the first, all for single-digit scores. During the first game, he also broke Yuzvendra Chahal’s Indian record of 96 wickets in the format, and now has 98 T20I scalps.
Shami replaces Arshdeep
For the third T20I, however, India’s only change was to bring in Mohammed Shami for Arshdeep. “Arshdeep is resting, Shami comes in,” explained captain Suryakumar Yadav after winning the toss.
The match will mark Shami’s long-awaited return to international cricket. He had last played in the 2023 World Cup, where he had an incredible tournament, taking 24 wickets at 10.70, striking at an astonishing 12.2 balls per wicket. Since then, Shami has played domestic cricket, but despite many speculations, did not feature in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
However, Shami has been named in the Indian squad for the 2025 Champions Trophy, to begin in February in Pakistan and the UAE. This is his first T20I since the 2022 T20 World Cup semi-final, which was also against England.
At the time of writing, England were 87-3 in 10 overs. Sharing the new ball with Shami, Hardik Pandya dismissed Salt for five, while Axar Patel had Ben Duckett for 51 and Varun Chakravarthy had Jos Buttler for 24. Shami’s first two overs in his first match for India in 14 months have gone for 15. Follow the match live here.
