More Shami uncertainty?

Unruffled by the lingering fitness concerns surrounding Mohammed Shami the welloiled machine that is Indiarsquos T20 team will be eyeing an encore of its opening performance against a stunned England in the second game of a fivematch series here on SaturdayIndia lead the rubber 10 after an impressive sevenwicket victory at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday The hosts would certainly want to see Shami in action but his inclusion in the eleven as things stand now will depend on further evaluation of his fitnessShami still not accurateThe 34yearold pacer looked rusty in the nets on Friday ahead of his muchawaited international comeback with his last game in India colours still being the 2023 ODI World Cup finalBowling with both of his legs heavily bandaged the Bengal quick managed to work up a reasonable pace but the renowned smoothness inhis approach and release was lackingDespite playing in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and the Vijay Hazare Trophy Shami looked far from his lethal best here Especially considering he was bowling alongside Arshdeep Singh who looked much more accurate and sharperHowever India did not miss Shami much in Kolkata where pacer Arshdeep with the new ball and spinner Varun Chakravarthy in the middle phase wrecked England producing impressive spellsAlso ReadWe will have the game Paras Dogra on JampKs comeback against MumbaiSpin can win in ChennaiThe Eden pitch had enough help for both quicks and their slower colleagues but the corresponding 22yard trampoline here could offer more assistance to the spinners as it often has been the case in the pastIndia would not be complaining whatever be the nature of the track The home side boasts of quality and variety in a lineup consisting Chakravarthy vicecaptain Axar Patel and Ravi BishnoiFrom Englandrsquos perspective they would require much better contributions from experienced spinners Adil Rashid and allrounder Liam Livingstone to challenge the Indian teamApart from pacer Jofra Archer none of the other English bowlers could survive the onslaught of Abhishek Sharma and the mini cameo of Sanju Samson in the first matchSince coming together in the T20Is last year Samson and Abhishek have had considerable success In Kolkata Abhishek hurt England with a brutal knock of 79All eyes on openersHere too the Indian openers will have to give their side a solid start considering the tricky nature of the pitchEngland too will hope for a fiery start from their openers to clinch early momentum as Phil Salt and Ben Duckett jointly made just four runs off seven ballsItrsquos not a matter of grave concern yet but skipper Suryakumar Yadav will be mindful of the fact that he has just two fifties in the previous 11 innings He would not want to miss the party for long and will be eyeing a fruitful outing hereThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever