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Shubman Gill was announced as India's new Test skipper by chief selector Ajit Agarkar on Saturday ahead of the upcoming five-match series against England. Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant was named as his deputy while star pacer Jasprit Bumrah was surprisingly not given any leadership role in the team.
Jasprit Bumrah has previously captained India in Test cricket
Despite Bumrah being the number one bowler in Test cricket as per the International Cricket Council (ICC) Rankings and having captained the Men in Blue for two matches in the Border-Gavaskar series 2024/25 against Australia, he was left out of captaincy probably due to his fitness concerns. However, former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar wasn't satisfied with the The Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) decision of not making the 31-year-old the new captain and expressed his disappointment on the matter.
"What I found strange about the selection was the captain's choice. I just failed to understand why Bumrah was not even considered," Manjrekar said, speaking to ESPNcricinfo.
Manjrekar also namedropped both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma and pointed out that they were made the captains despite not playing in all the Tests in a series, but the same logic wasn't applied for Bumrah.
"The reason for that was his likelihood of not playing the entire series. We've had Rohit Sharma, who recently captained India and played only three of the five test matches. We had Virat Kohli in the past opting out of test matches and not playing the full series. But still, the captain," Manjrekar added.
Agarkar, who announced India's 18-member squad for the Test assignment against England, confirmed that Bumrah will not be participating in all the five Tests and will only be present in 3-4 matches.
"Don't think he'll be available for all five Tests. Whether it's four or three, we'll see based on how the series goes and his workload is. Even if he's fit for 3-4 Tests, he'll be an asset for us. Just happy he's part of the squad," Agarkar said at the press conference.
Bumrah's last participation in a Test series came during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy where he racked up a total of 32 scalps in five matches and was even adjudged as the Player of the Series despite India losing by 3-1.
In the final match of the series in Sydney, Bumrah ended up sustaining a back injury which saw him not being able to bowl in Australia's second innings. This ended up hurting India a lot as the Aussies easily chased down the target of 162 and went on to make the World Test Championship final, overtaking the Men in Blue on the WTC points table.
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