Jasprit Bumrah is arguably the best bowler of the current generation. However, with his injury history, managing him has become one of the trickier parts for the Indian side. For the ongoing India vs England series, even before the team has reached the English shores, the Indian side has decided that the premium bowler will play in only three games out of five. However, former South African cricketer AB de Villiers suggested that India could use Bumrah the way South Africa used Dale Steyn.
“He is probably the top bowler in the world in all formats right now. So, it’s very difficult to decide a way to rest him, but in my opinion, Test cricket is the ultimate form of the game. And this Test series probably would’ve been the one, in my opinion, to get him ready for all five Test matches. That’s what we used to do with Dale (Steyn). Rest him in lesser important T20 and ODI series and get him ready for the big Test series against Australia, England, and India away from home… New Zealand to a certain extent, depending on the rankings at that time,” De Villiers said.
“So, I don’t know if it was mismanagement or perhaps because he recently got back from injury, sort of saw the IPL as the warmup phase. Maybe, went to the surgeon, who let him know, ‘You can’t play the five Test matches.’ So, I mean you got to respect that, and at the end of the day, it’s up to Team India to sort of manage him well,” he added.
India and England series, and that is all to do with Jasprit Bumrah. Will he be playing the 2nd Test match? How many Test matches will he be playing in this Test series? The very big Test series, and I say it like that because I don’t know if it’s a serious injury, and maybe because of the lack of workload coming into this Test series. They are scared of him getting a very bad injury and being out for a few years, or is it managing workload?”“If it’s the latter, I don’t know if they’ve gone right about this workload management leading up to this huge five-Test match series. It doesn’t get bigger than that, guys, except for maybe the WTC final,” he added.
