India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate has opened up on Jasprit Bumrah’s absence for the fifth Test match against England at the Kennington Oval, London. As it was expected, Bumrah was not picked in the playing XI to manage his workload.
The ace pacer had already played three Test matches in the series, and it was earlier revealed he would play that many in the series. Bumrah had picked 14 wickets in three Test matches of the Anderson-Tendulkar series at an average of 26.
The gun fast bowler bowled a total of 119.4 overs in the series. Bumrah had suffered a back injury on the Australian tour and since then a special heed has been paid to manage his workload.
“I think it is quite a complex issue around Bumrah. We obviously want to wheel him out, we also want to respect where his body’s at. On the basis of that, we just felt that it was not worth including him. He has bowled a large number of overs, I know it doesn’t seem like that because he has only played three Tests, and he bowled only one innings in Manchester, but if you look at the load, he has bowled a lot,” the assistant coach Doeschate said during the press conference after Day 1.
“He did say coming into the tour he was going to be available for three games, and we just felt it was right to honor that call,” he added.
Meanwhile, England dished out a green deck in Bumrah’s absence and the former Dutch batter said they would have loved to have the fast bowler on this kind of a track.
“In hindsight, you would love to have him here, but you also would have said if we come here 1-3 down, that we did not use him there. Maybe England have got it spot on, leaving the best bowling wicket for the last Test after he has played three,” the coach added.
India ended the opening day’s play at 204-6 after Ollie Pope decided to bowl first.