Ahead of the India-West Indies series, a BCCI source on Saturday revealed that pacer Mohammad Shami’s visa application was initially rejected by the US Embassy as the cricketer’s police verification record was incomplete.
However, the source confirmed that BCCI stepped in and took care of Shami’s visa application.
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“Shami’s visa application was initially rejected by the US Embassy as his police verification record was incomplete. But now it’s all sorted and all the required documents have been given,” a BCCI source told ANI.
“BCCI CEO Rahul Johri wrote a letter to the US Embassy, saying Shami is India’s top cricketer and also mentioned his contribution in cricket for the country,” the source added.
Earlier this year, Shami got surrounded by controversy after his ex-wife Hasin Jahan accused him of domestic violence and filed an FIR against the cricketer in Kolkata.
Shami was in top form during the recently concluded ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup as he scalped 14 wickets in just four matches.
India will take on West Indies in three T20Is, three ODIs and two Test matches. The first two T20Is will be played in Florida, USA.
Team India chief selector MSK Prasad had on July 21 announced the squads for the upcoming series against West Indies. Putting all speculations to rest about Indian captain Virat Kohli’s participation in the limited-overs series, he was chosen to lead the team in all formats.
Veteran wicket-keeper batsman MS Dhoni was rested, and Rishabh Pant will be keeping the wickets for the team. Pant was named across all three formats and Wriddhiman Saha found a spot for the two Tests.
Following are the squads for the West Indies tour:
T20Is: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Krunal Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Rahul Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini
ODIs: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kedar Jadhav, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Navdeep Saini
Tests: Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane (vc), Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wk) Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav.
(With Agency Inputs)