'Where is 15th Player' - Fans confused as team India leaves for 20-20 World Cup without Jasprit Bumrah's replacement

Indian camp departed for Australia just a day back on the 6^th of October to start their preparations for the 20-20 World Cup 2022. Notably, the team boarded the flight to Australia without having the 15^th member in the team as the replacement for injured Jasprit Bumrah is yet to be named by the selectors.

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Earlier, Bumrah was ruled out of this major international tournament as he sustained an injury in his back last week just ahead of the three-match T20I series against South Africa.

Talking about India in the 20-20 World Cup, then they had a very unfavorable outing in last year’s edition of the tournament. So, they are not in a position to take any risk or chance of entering the World Cup without proper preparations.

The Indian cricket Board went on to share a customary photograph of the team alongside support staff on social media platforms. This picture gave them a chance to fans to take a jibe and express their confusion over the 15^th player. It was also interesting to see that support staff members were more than the players.

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Picture perfect 📸

Let's do this #TeamIndia@cricketworldcup, here we come ✈️ pic.twitter.com/XX7cSg3Qno

— BCCI (@BCCI) October 5, 2022

Here’s how fans reacted to a 14-member squad of India ahead of the 20-20 World Cup

Where is 15th Player ??

— Navdeep Singh Gill (@navgill82) October 6, 2022

Weakest Indian team ever in terms of bowling. Bhuvi must pull up his socks and Harshal too.

— Deepak (@dpk0106) October 6, 2022

They haven't named boom's replacement yet and standby players are playing sa odi series except shami

— Starlord (@NotTheDarkBlade) October 6, 2022

Haa boom ka replacement ni pta na

— Lovish¹⁸//#OreoEra (@Lovishjain2004) October 6, 2022

No fast bowler backup in the 14 man squad in Australia !

— kaustubh (@kauschiku) October 6, 2022

India 🇮🇳 is 1 fast bowler short. Should have included Deepak Chahar in place of Ashwin and Umran Malik in place of Bumra. Still there’s time to make changes, hope better sense prevails. All the best Team India 🇮🇳 bring the cup home. 👍

— Vivek Tewari (@vivektewari76) October 6, 2022

Speaking of Jasprit Bumrah’s replacement, there are various names floating in the discussions of the Indian cricketing corridors. Although, the selectors and the Indian management are not willing to rush out as they still have the last date of 15^th of October to announce the replacement for the 28-year-old injured speedster.

Senior pacer Mohammed Shami is the name who is going on top among the contenders who are there in line to replace Bumrah for the marquee tournament in Australia. Shami has recently recovered from COVID-19 and hasn’t played any international games since then.

Currently, a second-string Indian team is in action during the three-match ODI series against South Africa. Both teams played the first match of the series at Ekana Stadium in Lucknow where the visitors registered a win by nine runs to take the 1-0 lead in the series.