Mohammad Shami likely to be replaced Umesh Yadav at Indore; Shubman Gill likely to be in for KL Rahul for third Test

In a move to manage Mohammad Shami’s workload, India are likely to rest him from the third Test in Indore, and replace him with Umesh Yadav. And KL Rahul is also likely to make way for Shubman Gill to play his first Test of the series.
In a series where spinners have bowled the maximum number of overs, Shami has bowled only 29.7 overs in three innings. However, it is understood that a red flag has been raised with regards to Shami’s workload and with the Indian Premier League set to follow, the team management has decided to rest him.
With Jasprit Bumrah already sidelined for a lengthy period, India are not willing to take any chances with Shami as in Umesh they have a very reliable replacement. Especially, with the world Test championship to be played in England where Shami would be the key man of the attack.

Fast. Faster. Fastest ⚡
🗣️ Here’s Captain @ImRo45 explaining the importance of running through the overs quickly #TeamIndia | #INDvAUS | @mastercardindia pic.twitter.com/sV4LpnVPb2
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 28, 2023
Since coming in as a last-minute replacement for the injured Bumrah in the T20 World Cup last October-November, Shami was rested for the tours of New Zealand and Bangladesh that followed. No longer part of India’s T20 squads, he has played five of the six ODIs that were played before the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The decision to rest and rotate players is now taken the team management based on reports from the strength and conditioning coach and physio.
Umesh has been counted upon regularly in the past to deliver in home conditions. Since the start of 2017, no pacer has taken more wickets than Umesh’s 65 in Indian conditions and his strike-rate of 37.8 in the period is second only to Shami. And he is the only Indian pacer to take two five-wicket hauls in the said period. With his ability to hit the deck hard and tremendous air speed, Umesh is a valued asset in home conditions for India and is also quite effective when it comes to reverse-swing.

Gill coming in place of Rahul is very much on expected lines. Even before the series began, there were questions about the Karnataka opener’s place. However the Indian team management continued to back Rahul, especially because of his overseas performances. But in the two Tests that he played this series, Rahul has scores of 20, 17 & 1 and seldom looked in his usual elements at Nagpur and Delhi.
At the end of the Delhi Test, Captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid insed that Rahul’s performance in England and South Africa makes a strong case for them to stick with Rahul. However at the end of the Test, as the selectors sat down to pick the squad for the remaining two Tests, Rahul ended-up losing the vice-captain tag.
Gill has been in good form and scored his maiden Test century during India’s tour to Bangladesh in December. Since then he has scored a double century in ODIs and a century in the T20Is.