Team India needs to be more pragmatic when it come Jasprit Bumrah's workload management.
Credit: Reuters Photo
The decision to rest pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah from India's playing eleven for the second Test against England at Birmingham has raised a lot of eyebrows.
Whether the player himself has the right to decide to pull out of a match or whether it is the coach or captain's call remains open to debate.
Former India head coach Ravi Shastri, who is doing commentary for the ongoing Tendulkar-Anderson series, did not mince his words while saying that the player should not have a final say in it.
"It should be taken out of the player's hand. It should be the captain and the head coach that should decide who should be playing the 11," said Shastri, under whose tutelage Bumrah made his international debut.
Former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara also questioned the wisdom of resting the premier fast bowler ahead of such an important Test, especially after Bumrah took a five-wicket haul in the first Test which India lost by five wickets.
"Interesting to understand how the decision is being made and who makes it? Is it after a consultation with the players or the physios?," asked Sangakkara.
Normally players tend to be choosy only at the fag end of their careers like former England captain Graham Gooch who was finally told he cannot decide which game he plays and which he prefers to sit out.
The way the 'Gentleman's Game' is played and the way players approach it has changed over the years.
Kapil Dev taking a pain killer despite a thigh injury and fashioning India's famous victory against Australia on the final day of the Melbourne Test in 1981 is very still part of cricket lore.
With the Test series on the line and India defending a small total of 143, Kapil did not come out to bowl on the fourth-day evening. But on the final day, with a bandaged thigh, Kapil bowled 17 overs, taking a five-wicket haul and bowling out the Aussies for a paltry 83 to help India clinch a series-levelling win.
While comparisons are odious, it would be still have been better If Bumrah had been part of the starting XI at Birmingham, especially considering the fact that there was a gap of almost a week between the two Test matches.
With Bumrah being injury-prone, it was decided and revealed in public much earlier that the fast bowler would not be playing in all the Test matches as part of managing his workload.
But wrong signals are being sent by resting him just after the first Test especially with India 0-1 down in the series.
"You've lost the first Test match here and you want to get back to winning ways. You have the best fast bowler in the world, and you make him sit out after seven days of rest, it's something very hard to believe," added Shastri, while speaking to the host broadcaster after the toss.
Unlike the earlier years, the cricketers play three formats of the game and it tends to put a heavy toll on their mind and body. It is precisely for this reason that some of the players prefer to play in only one format.
Bumrah is someone who features in all three formats and many attribute his recurring back injuries to that.
There are reports that Bumrah was rested so that he could play the third Test at Lord's and then going by the logic he would be rested again for the fourth Test at Manchester and then be back in the fray for the fifth Test at Oval.
But Team India's think tank, including the captain, the coach and the player himself need to be more pragmatic when it comes to Jasprit Bumrah's workload management.