India chief selector Chetan Sharma, while announcing the squads for the upcoming tours, said trying to rush Jasprit Bumrah for the T20 World Cup 2022 only made it worse.
India announced four squads on Monday for their upcoming tours of New Zealand and Bangladesh in November-December. The trio of captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul has been rested with the New Zealand series beginning on November 18, five days after the T20 World Cup final.
The biggest talking point from the virtual press conference was a slip-up from the chief Indian selector Chetan Sharma, who basically admitted their mistake with Bumrah’s workload management.
Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja, both of whom missed the T20 World Cup due to injuries, did not make the cut for the New Zealand tour as they continue to recover. While Jadeja returns for the Bangladesh series, the selectors want to be cautious with Bumrah.
Talking about why there is a lack of consistency in selecting squads, Sharma said they have to manage the workload of players and gave an example of their lead pacer Bumrah.
“I always say that we have to manage players. And when we do that, the media sometimes writes about why some players are not playing, different players are playing, different captains are coming.
“The selection committee has to deal with workload management which we follow very closely. Now, we tried to hurry up Jasprit Bumrah, we tried to get him with the World Cup coming. And see what has happened? We are without Jasprit Bumrah in the World Cup,”
said Sharma.
Bumrah had suffered a stress reaction in his back in August, which had ruled out of the Asia Cup campaign later that month. Next month, Bumrah was declared fit and selected in the T20 World Cup squad. The same squad that took on Australia and South Africa at home in the build-up to the T20 World Cup.
The 29-year-old fast bowler played two of the three T20s against Australia but was pulled out before the South Africa series after he complained of back pain. Bumrah has been in a rehab programme since then at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. Sharma did not give any timelines for the pacer’s return to action.
India are scheduled to play three T20Is and three ODIs in New Zealand starting on November 18. In early December, they will fly to Bangladesh for three ODIs and two Tests. Hardik Pandya and Shikhar Dhawan will lead the side against New Zealand in T20Is and ODIs respectively, while Rohit Sharma will return to take charge for the Bangladesh tour.
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India will then host New Zealand and Sri Lanka for white-ball assignments early next year before an important Border-Gavaskar series at home against Australia as a part of the World Test Championship. Bumrah is expected to return ahead of the Australia series but as of now, the team management wants to give him as much time as possible to recover fully.
“I always request the media that when we rest a player there is a reason behind that. No selector fancies that we keep changing the team or the captains – it is only that there is so much cricket, and there is so much workload management to look after that we have to keep looking after the player’s body.
End of the day they are humans. He will be back soon. The NCA team is working on him properly and I hope he will return soon to play for India,”
Sharma concluded.
