Workload management means Bumrah won’t play all tests, says Ajit Agarkar in the press conference yesterday.
India fast bowler could miss one or two Tests to workload management during the five-match series.
Jasprit Bumrah, a fast bowler for India, is not expected to play in all five Test matches during the England tour, which begins at Headingley on June 20.
As part of his workload management, medical staff have recommended Bumrah not to risk playing many consecutive Test matches, according to India’s top selector, Ajit Agarkar.
After Bumrah experienced a stress response in his back during the fifth Test match against Australia in Sydney in January, the preventative treatment was implemented. He did not bowl for the rest of the match after leaving the pitch on the second day.
Bumrah returned in April for the Mumbai Indians, who have advanced to the playoffs, after missing the 2025 Champions Trophy.
“I don’t think he [Bumrah] will be available for all five Tests, the physios and the doctors have told us,” Agarkar said while announcing India’s Test squad on Saturday. “Whether it’s four or three [Tests], we will see how the series goes and how his body can take the workload. Needless to say how important he is, even if he’s fit for three or four Tests, he’s going to win us a few Test matches. So we are just glad that he is fit and that little setback that he had in Australia wasn’t too bad. He’s back playing – I know it’s T20 cricket – at the moment, but we’ve seen what he’s doing in the IPL. We are just happy that he’s part of the squad.”
Bumrah has taken 37 wickets in eight games (not counting the 2021 World Test Championship final) at an average of 23.78 and a strike rate of 51.9 in the next Test series, which will be his third in England. When Rohit Sharma retired in April, Bumrah would have been a candidate for the Test captaincy if not for his back problem, according to Agarkar.
In the one-off encounter in Edgbaston in 2022, the Perth Test against Australia last year, where he was instrumental in India’s triumph, and in Sydney, Bumrah has captained India in three Test matches. When Rohit missed the first and fifth Tests of the series, he had to captain the team even though he was the vice-captain for the Australia tour.
“Booms [Bumrah], because he led in Australia, he was the vice-captain for, but once he’s not going to be available for all the Test matches (he couldn’t be part of the captaincy conversation),” Agarkar said. “He is more important to us as a player. We want him fit. There’s always that extra burden when you are managing 15-16 other people. There’s a lot that it takes out of you. We’d rather have him bowling as well as he does than putting that extra burden on him.
“He is aware of it,” Agarkar said. “We’ve had a chat with him and he’s okay with it. He knows where his body’s at and he’d rather look after himself and be bowling fit. It was more his workload management and having him fit as a bowler, more than anything else.”