Can India be bold enough and pick Mohammed Shami over Shardul?

IT WAS ONE of the loudest pops in Dharamsala on Sunday. Mohammed Shami held the ball for the first time at this Cricket World Cup, scampered in from over the stumps, and then let go of a length ball with that picture perfect seam bolt upright.

- RAHUL PANDEY

It would come into Will Young, who dragged it onto his stumps and pop. 10 Indian shirts converged in jubilation towards the middle of the 22yard strip at the HPCA Stadium while one just raised his finger up. For Shami, who was benched for the previous four India games in the tournament, business looked as usual. It raised a pertinent question. Where was he all this time? Why didn't the Indian management look at him as a first choice bowler from the very first game of the World Cup?

Shardul Thakur has been entrusted in place of the mostexperienced new ball bowler in India's World Cup squad to add an extra batting option. While his batting prowess is yet to be put under test at the marquee event, it's the medium pacer's returns with the ball that have been a bigger concern. "In the games that he played, we saw him as someone who certainly has a happy knack of taking wickets and then bowling those middle overs for us," the head coach Rahul Dravid would say. That knack is yet to be seen with only two wickets from the 17 overs off his three outings at this World Cup. The economy rate has subsequently gone up from 5.16 to 6.00 to 6.55.

With Shami's wall-breaking return, India find themselves at a crossroads. Do they persist with their talismanic seamer or opt for their only seam bowling all-rounder in the absence of Hardik Pandya, who is currently recovering from an ankle injury. Cut down on the runs or prioritize scoring them? With just a single outing at this World Cup, Shami makes a strong case for the former.