Team India fans' hearts skipped a beat when on Thursday (September 29) it was learnt that Men in Blue's pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah is likely to miss the upcoming T20 World Cup owing to injury.
However amid Bumrah's uncertainty for the marquee tournament, India's star pacers Mohammed Siraj and speed express Umran Malik have been added as reserved in Team India's T20 World Cup squad, a source privy to the development told Sports Tak. Both the pacers will be travelling to Australia with the India squad.
The decision to add both the bowlers in the scheme of things for the T20 World Cup has been taken because Indian cricket team management wants to have backup handy for Bumrah, who has suffered a serious back stress fracture injury.
Apart from Bumrah, India have Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel as their specialist pace bowlers with Hardik Pandya as a batting all-rounder. India also have two specialist pace bowlers in form of Deepak Chahar and Avesh Khan already in the reserves.
Mohammed Shami is yet to recover from the Covid-19 virus and Bumrah has been replaced by Siraj for the ongoing T20I series against South Africa. Siraj struggled for consistency in the Indian Premier League 2022 (IPL) season with only nine wickets in 15 matches at a poor economy rate of 10.06 and is unlikely to progress to the main squad.
Umran, 22, took 22 wickets in just 14 matches in the IPL 2022 season and made his T20I international debut against Ireland in June. But he failed to make an instant impact and has taken only two wickets in three T20Is at a poor economy rate of 12.44 so far. Umran also struggled for the wickets against New Zealand A squad this month and it's inclusion for the reserves surprises many.
Bumrah didn't travel to Trivandrum for the first T20I match between India and South Africa which the former won by eight wickets on Wednesday (September 28).
BCCI had informed of Bumrah's injury just minutes before the toss took place at the Greenfield Stadium. "Jasprit Bumrah complained of back pain in during India's practice session on Tuesday. The BCCI Medical Team assessed him. He is ruled out of the first T20I," BCCI had tweeted.
Bumrah had earlier missed the entire Asia Cup 2022 due to a back injury. He spent around a month at National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru to recover, post which he was selected for the T20Is versus Australia. He missed the first T20I at Mohali but played the remaining two matches as India went on to win the series 2-1.
Many senior players have been given adequate rest, keeping in mind their workload.
What is more interesting is the fact that Bumrah has played only five Tests, five ODIs and as many T20Is in 2022 apart from IPL games for Mumbai Indians.
Back stress fractures do not require surgery but a lot of time to heal.
Bumrah, who has a slinging action, puts a lot of pressure on his back during loading. Former West Indies pace bowling great Michael Holding had assessed that Bumrah was always a candidate for back injuries.
