England captain Ben Stokes passes a brutal take on speculations around Jasprit Bumrah's participation for the second Test match of the ongoing Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2024, which is scheduled to begin for July 2 at Edgbaston Stadium in Birmingham. Bumrah featured in the first Test against England, where he bowled 43.4 overs and picked up a fifer in the first inning, which India lost by five wickets after allowing England to chase down 371.
On the eve of second Test match, Stokes said the England think tank is not at all bothered about Bumrah's workload management and his availability for only part of the five-match series.
"(Bumrah is) India's problem to deal with. I am the captain of England. Let India decide what they want to do and what they want to say publicly," Stokes said when he was asked whether Bumrah resting for the second Test match can be an advantage to England.
Ahead of the second Test, India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate confirmed that Bumrah is available for selection and the decision to include him in the squad will be taken before the match.
“He's available for the game, obviously. We know from the start he's only going to play three out of the five. He's obviously had eight days to recover from the last test. But given conditions, workload, and how we think we can best manage for the next four games, we haven't made a call on that,” said Ryan ten Doeschate.
“With Bumrah, he is ready to play. It's how we manage these four tests. So if we feel like there's value in playing him in this Test, we'll make that call at the very last minute. But I'm talking about whether, how the pitch is going to play. Are we better off holding him back for Lord's and maybe Manchester or the Oval? So it's all those factors,” said Doeschate. “But you've seen him train yesterday, he trained a little bit today. It's not like he's not fit to play. It's just trying to fit those puzzle pieces to get the most out of him, out of what we know we do have from him,” he added.
However, ahead of the England Test series, Bumrah himself confirmed that he will only be available for the three Tests. The speedster is coming into the national setup after recovering from a back injury he got in Australia during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.