Indian pacer Mohammed Shami has had a dream start to his Cricket World Cup 2023 campaign. The right-arm pacer, who warmed the bench during the first four matches of India, finally got a chance in the fifth game of the team – against New Zealand at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala. Shami got off to a superb start as he took the wicket of Will Young. A short of length delivery from the pacer around off stump saw Young getting an inside edge on the ball that hit the stumps eventually.
With the dismissal, Shami also surpassed India’s spin great Anil Kumble in the list of leading wicket-takers in the ODI World Cup history. Before the game, Shami and Kumble both had 31 wickets each to their names at the tournament. Former pacers Zaheer Khan and Javagal Srinath are the Indian bowlers with most number of wickets (44 each) in the tournament. Shami follows the duo.
Earlier, India skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bowl in the World Cup 2023 match against New Zealand in Dharamsala.
India made two changes in their playing XI. They brought in Suryakumar Yadav and Mohammad Shami in places of Hardik Pandya and Shardul Thakur. Hardik sustained an ankle injury in the match against Bangladesh earlier this week while Shardul was dropped.
Meanwhile, New Zealand featured an unchanged XI.
Teams:
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (w), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj.
New Zealand: Tom Latham (w/c), Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson and Trent Boult.
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