Shamik Chakrabarty
Jasprit Bumrah is fit. At the post-match press conference in Manchester, head coach Gautam Gambhir had said: “All the fast bowlers are fit. There are no injury concerns.” But the team’s best bowler won’t be turning up for the series decider at The Oval — a win-or-bust game for India.
The tourists are 2-1 down in the series, but Bumrah is opting out of the final Test ostensibly under the pretext of workload management. On the face of it, this is absurd. But that’s the way it is now with Bumrah. He has become a luxury for India. Have the medical team told him that he can’t play the fifth Test? The decision calls for clarity.
The 31-year-old fast bowler has bowled 119.4 overs in three Tests in the ongoing England-India series. At Old Trafford, he went for 112 runs (two wickets) in 33 overs. For the first time, after playing 47 Tests, Bumrah conceded 100 runs in an innings. It attested his greatness. At the same time, it was clear that he was struggling, playing two consecutive Tests even after a seven-day gap. A stat put out by the host broadcaster revealed that less than one per cent of his deliveries were above 140 kph. Even during the fourth Test, it was all but certain that Bumrah wouldn’t be playing the fifth.
“We haven’t had any conversation around the combination for the last Test,” Gambhir told reporters in Manchester. “No decision has been made on whether Jasprit Bumrah will play or not. Ultimately, whoever plays, they will try and do the job for the country.”
The head coach had kept his cards close, probably knowing full well that his premier bowler wouldn’t be available for the decider. Before the start of the series, it was decided that Bumrah wouldn’t be playing more than three Tests. Even Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar never went into a series with such a precondition. Times have changed.
Keyboard warriors criticise Bumrah on social media, citing his uninterrupted availability for Mumbai Indians in the IPL. Moronic. A bowler bowls just four overs in a game in T20 cricket. In Tests, he bowls 15 overs a day.
But there’s a flip side to it, when it comes to workload management. Kapil bowled 27,740 balls only in Tests during his illustrious career. The only time he missed a game was when he was dropped for playing a “poor shot” that led to India’s defeat in a Test against England. Mind you, Kapil, unlike Bumrah, was often a lone ranger — the majority of his new-ball partners bowling military-medium from the other end. He also underwent a couple of knee surgeries in the prime of his career.
The logic that the 1980s didn’t have a proliferation of cricket doesn’t hold water. The players of that generation regularly played domestic cricket apart from the international fixtures. In the summer, they plied their trade in England, in county cricket, which was energy-sapping to say the least. Kapil played for Northamptonshire and Worcestershire.
“The times have changed; their bodies are different, and they work differently, so it’s hard to judge one person,” the great all-rounder recently told reporters.
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