Former South African batter AB de Villiers has expressed his surprise that Jasprit Bumrah is going to play only three out of the five Test matches against England. Bumrah suffered a back injury in the fifth Test match against Australia at Sydney and since then the team management wants to manage his workload with guile.
Bumrah was sensational on the Australian tour, bagging 32 wickets at 13.06 in five Test matches. But after the injury, the ace pacer was also ruled out of the Champions Trophy.
AB said Bumrah should be saved for important Test series in foreign conditions and he should not play all the T20Is and ODIs. Meanwhile, Bumrah was brilliant in the first innings of the opening Test against England as he returned with impressive figures of 5-83.
AB de Villiers said on his YouTube Channel, “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.”
“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.
It has been reported that Bumrah will miss the second Test match to manage his workload.
The former South African captain 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.
The second Test match between India and England will be played at Edgbaston, Birmingham from July 2nd onwards.
