The Indian team management received a massive setback as their star speedster Mohammed Shami failed to recover fully in time for the last two matches of the ongoing Test series against Australia.

Notably, the Indian cricket board (BCCI) informed that Shami's left knee has exhibited minor swelling due to increased joint loading from his bowling workload in domestic cricket.

Hence, he has not been deemed fit for consideration for the remaining two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The news comes as a massive setback for the team management, who were eagerly waiting for Shami to regain his fitness and support pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah in the remaining two Tests.

with 21 wickets from three matches at an average of 10.90 with two five-wicket hauls to his name. However, despite his remarkable performance, India have struggled with the ball in the last two Tests, as Bumrah hasn't got the support from the other bowlers.

Indian bowling sans Bumrah: A major problem

Bumrah's new-ball partner, Mohammed Siraj, has looked off-colour in the last two matches, picking eight wickets across four innings, out of which four have been tailenders and one was Travis Head on 140. His stats have been completely contrasting from Perth when he registered figures of 5/71 in the match, out of which just one wicket was of the tailender.

Apart from Siraj, Akash Deep showed great heart in his first Test of the series in Brisbane. However, his first innings figures of 1/95 in 29.5 overs, don't show how unlucky he was when the ball went past the outside edge of the batters more often than not. Akash finished the match with figures of 3/123 and failed to impress after replacing Harshit Rana in the playing XI.

On the other hand, Rana made headlines on his Test debut as he registered figures of 3/48 in the first innings. The 23-year-old also got the prized scalp of India's chief tormentor, Travis Head, with a peach of a delivery. However, Rana failed to continue with the same intensity in the second innings, leaking 69 runs in 13.4 overs.

He further didn't have a memorable game in Adelaide going wicket-less in 16 overs and giving away 86 runs. Apart from the trio, Nitish Kumar Reddy has served as the fourth seam option in the series. He has been promising as a batter, scoring crucial runs lower down the order, but hasn't been that good with the ball, having taken three wickets at an average of 41 and a high economy of 4.55.

Bumrah being pushed beyond his limits

As a result, Bumrah has had to do much of the heavy lifting in the series with the captain Rohit Sharma bringing him on, every time the team has been in desperate need of a breakthrough. However, the heavy workload has taken a lot of toll on Bumrah's body already as he's played seven out of the last eight Tests in the ongoing season.

Bumrah has bowled the second most number of overs amongst seamers in world cricket in the ongoing year (303.4) and has also bowled in the most number of innings (24). The Indian vice-captain has already played 12 Tests in the ongoing year, the most in his career so far, and also featured in the T20 World Cup 2024 where he bowled 29.4 overs collectively.

Hence, with two more matches to go against Australia, Bumrah still has a lot of work left to do, and constant Indian batting collapses have meant that he hasn't got enough rest between the innings. and has joined several legends in the list.

However, he desperately seeks support from his teammates as with every Test, his body is pushing its limits, which could further invite more misery for India with the World Test Championship (WTC) final qualification on the line.