Former India cricketer Manoj Tiwary was critical of Jasprit Bumrah for only playing three out of five Tests against England in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. The debate around the 31-year-old's workload management intensified after the series concluded and he was even accused of 'picking and choosing' his matches.
Bumrah took 14 wickets in the three Tests he played against England and though these numbers weren't bad by any means, many felt that he could have pushed harder in order to feature in the other two Tests. Interestingly, Team India emerged victorious in the two games where Bumrah did'nt play.
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Tiwary feels that once a player gets picked, then he should be available to play all the matches in a series. He further remarked that Bumrah is 'not bigger than the game'.
“See, when you know there are a couple of things which has happened in England which I thought we missed a trick as far as our strategy is concerned. So first of all, in my opinion, if a player is not fit for a five-Test series, when you know beforehand, then obviously, you will not pick that individual,” Tiwary told CrickTracker.
“Why will you not pick that individual? Because no one is bigger than the game of cricket. And it should be told to everyone, irrespective of whether he's Jasprit Bumrah, whether it is Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma, or anyone in this world. No one is bigger than the game of cricket,” he added.
Tiwary added that if the selectors knew that Bumrah wouldn't be able to play all the five Tests, then he should not have been picked in the first place.
“If the team management knows or the selector knows that he's not going to survive for five Tests on a trot, he should not be picked. And the second reason is we would have understood if the backup was not there, the bench strength was not there, then obviously you want to take Jasprit Bumrah because you know there is no other bowlers who are ready to take over international cricket,” Tiwary stated.
“But when you know you have a bench strength, when you have a pool of fast bowlers who are really doing well, then obviously he should not have been picked in the first place,” he added.
Team management didn't want to risk getting Bumrah injured
Notably, India head coach Gautam Gambhir had already made it clear before the commencement of the England series that Bumrah will only be featuring in three Tests in order to properly manage his workload. Not to mention that he had come into the Test series after recovering from a serious back injury and thus the team management didn't want to risk getting him injured once again.