India could suffer an irrevocable blow to their chances of reclaiming the T20 World Cup trophy in Australia amidst dark clouds hovering large on Jasprit Bumrah’s participation in the tournament. The ace quick is down with a back injury, which could effectively end his hopes of making the trip Down Under.
Bumrah went to Bangalore on September 28 for fresh scans on his back and results are being awaited, which will ascertain when the pacer will be able to make his international comeback. Till a definite result of these scans in the coming few days, ESPNcricinfo reported, the BCCI medical staff will not be taking a final decision on his World Cup inclusion.
“It is understood the BCCI’s medical team has decided to wait for a few days and monitor Bumrah to ascertain if he can work his way back to peak fitness to be available to play at some point in the World Cup, even if not from the start,”
the report added.
For now, Bumrah has been ruled out of the T20I series against South Africa after missing the opening game of the series in Thiruvananthapuram.
In his absence, the team management has called in Mohammed Siraj to beef up their pace stocks in a squad that is already missing Mohammad Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
While Shami is sidelined with a positive Covid test, Bhuvneshwar has been rested and is at the NCA for a conditioning camp ahead of the T20 World Cup. With India’s big-name trio unavailable, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, and Deepak Chahar played the first game, with Umesh Yadav and now Siraj being part of the squad.
The BCCI has decided to only leave out Bumrah from the remainder of the South Africa T20Is. But PTI reported on Thursday afternoon that the seamer will not just miss the T20 World Cup in Australia but has also been ruled out from the game for the next six months with a “serious back condition”.
“Bumrah is not going to play the World T20 for sure. He has a serious back condition. It’s a stress fracture and he could be out for a period of six months,”
a BCCI official told PTI on conditions of anonymity, indicating that India’s spearhead has faced a reoccurrence of the lower back stress fracture that had troubled him not long after the 2019 World Cup.
Bumrah, who was given a break from successive trips to West Indies and Zimbabwe after playing through the all-format tour to England in July, faced this recurring back injury prior to the Asia Cup 2022, from which he was ruled out. The pacer underwent rehab at the NCA and was green-signalled for the T20Is against Australia and South Africa.
The pacer played the final two games of the Aussie series in Nagpur and Hyderabad on September 23 and 25, looking undercooked through his spells of 1/23 and 0/50.
He is a player of irreplaceable pedigree for India, with his new-ball incisiveness and death-overs expertise. Inarguably the best all-format bowler in world cricket right now, the 28-year-old has featured in 60 T20Is for India, taking 70 wickets at an economy rate of 6.22, averaging 20.22 per scalp. If Bumrah is indeed ruled out, there could be no greater dent to India’s T20 World Cup hopes.
