Paras Mhambrey defends call to rest Mohammed Shami

Mohammed Shami celebrates Peter Handcomb’s dismissal

India's call to rotate pacers over the course of a spinner dominated Border-Gavaskar Trophy has been questioned, but bowling coach Paras Mhambrey insisted on Thursday that their decision will benefit the speedsters in the long term.

Australia finished the opening day at 255 for 4 with Usman Khawaja scoring his 14th Test hundred. While Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj played the first two Tests, it was Umesh Yadav, who got a home Test after a long time in Indore at the expense of Shami, who was rested from the game.

For the fourth and final Test, Shami is back in the playing XI while Siraj has been rested, giving a Umesh a rare back-to-back appearance in a home series. "You have to take a call as you also have to look at the individual workload of each bowlers," Mhambrey said when asked if pacers' rhythm gets affected due to this break in game time.

Also read: Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Khawaja, Smith take Australia to 149/2 at tea

"The way we looked at Shami, we needed to give him that break and it's an opportunity for us that Siraj or Umesh also get a game. After this series, we have the World Championship [final] and we need to look at that as well. You have to, at times, rotate bowlers and it's important for players as well," he added.

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