Home
India pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah will have to work on his fitness issues if he wants to feature in Test series in the future. According to a report by The Times of India, the 31-year-old may not be considered for future red-ball series if he isn't fully fit to feature in all of the matches. This comes after he only played three out of five Tests in the ongoing series against England due to concerns with his fitness.
The team management had taken the decision of not playing Bumrah in all the Tests against England even before the series began. They did so not only in order to manage the pacer's workload properly but also to make him avoid sustaining any injury.
Bumrah has been brilliant in the series against England
Bumrah was included in the playing XI for the first Test at Headingley but was then rested for the second match. Then, he went on to feature in both the third and fourth Test, but was then left out for the fifth and final match. Despite not playing in all matches, Bumrah is still the joint-highest wicket-taker for the visitors in the England series alongside Mohammed Siraj with both picking up 14 scalps each.
“Strength and condition (S&C) coaches can set the workload threshold for each player. But Bumrah’s availability should depend on his fitness, which will be assessed by the medical team," the report quoted a BCCI source as saying.
Meanwhile, India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate defended Bumrah when he was asked if the seamer was choosing the Tests that he would play in. Ten Doeschate firmly stated that the 31-year-old was dropped from the team for the fifth Test so that his workload could be managed.
“I don't think picking and choosing is a fair comment to Bumrah. He did say he was going to play 3 games. He left it up to us which 3 he played. We've tried to manage the situation. It's not ideal. I think it's quite a complex issue around Bumrah, we obviously want to wheel him out, but we also want to respect where his body is at. On the basis of that, we just felt that it wasn't worth including him in the squad,” ten Doeschate said at the post-day press-conference.
“He has bowled a large number of overs. I know it doesn't always seem like that because he's only played 3 tests, and he only bowled in 1 innings in Manchester. But if you look at the loads, he's bowled a lot of overs, and like he said coming into the tour, he was going to be available for 3 games. We just felt it was the right call,” he added.
Coming to the fifth Test between India and England, the visitors wrapped up Day 1 on 204/6 with Karun Nair unbeaten on 52 and Washington Sundar batting on 19. The duo's partnership of 51 runs provided some much-needed stability to the visitors who had gotten restricted to 153/6 at one stage. England pacers made the most out of the seam-friendly pitch at The Oval as both Gus Atkinson and Josh Tongue picked up two scalps each while Chris Woakes also chipped in with a wicket.
ADVERTISEMENT
