India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate has revealed that they will take a call on Jasprit Bumrah’s availability for the second Test against England at the last minute. The former Netherlands batter said Bumrah is available for selection for the second Test but they haven’t decided whether he will play or not.
Bumrah was the pick of the Indian bowlers in the first innings of the opening Test as he returned with impressive figures of 5-83 at Leeds, Headingley but went wicketless in the second essay. It has been reported that ace pacer would be rested in order to manage his workload.
Doeschate revealed it has been pre-decided that Bumrah would play three out of the five Test matches in the series.
Doeschate said in a press conference, “He’s available for the game, obviously. We know from the start that he’s only going to play three out of the five (Test matches). He’s obviously had eight days to recover from the last Test. But given conditions, workload and how we think we can best manage for the next four games we have not made a call on that.”
“Technically yes he’s available but we haven’t made a decision on whether he’s going to play or not yet,” Ten Doeschate added.
“With Bumrah, he is ready to play. It’s how we manage these four Tests. So if we feel like there’s value in playing him in this Test, we’ll make that call at the very last minute. But I’m talking about the weather, how the pitch is going to play. Are we better off holding him back for Lord’s and maybe Manchester or the Oval? So it’s all those factors,” he added.
After going down 0-1 in the series, Doeschate revealed it is tempting to play Bumrah but they have got to keep a close eye on his workload. The assistant coach added India can’t be over-reliant on Bumrah’s shoulders.
“It is tempting, but we also feel we can go 1-1 or keep the score at 1-0 without Jasprit. That’s putting the eggs in the back end of the series. We’re going to need him at some stage as well. You’ve got to decide when you’re going to play your strongest suit. We feel that whatever we put out there, we can compete in this Test match. We came pretty close without Jasprit in the second half. He didn’t get any wickets.
“But you can’t win the Test series with just one bowler in any case. And the bowlers are very well aware of that, that they need to chip in with wickets. Sorry, I can’t give you a more firm answer. But we’ll work out in the next 24 hours how we’re going to manage Jasprit.”
The second Test match between India and England will be played at Edgbaston, Birmingham from July 2nd onwards.
