He said it wouldn’t be “fair on the team” if he had to take breaks during long series as captain owing to workload
Jasprit Bumrah’s all smiles during a practice session•Bipin Patel
Jasprit Bumrah has said that he didn’t want to become India’s Test captain because of workload management and that he had communicated the same to the BCCI, who were looking at him as a leadership candidate at the time.
After Rohit Sharma had announced his retirement from Test cricket in May, Shubman Gill was picked as India’s new Test captain for the upcoming five-match series against England.
“There’s no fancy stories to it [captaincy],” Bumrah told Sky Sports during an interview with Dinesh Karthik. “There is no controversy or there’s no headlining statements that I was sacked or I was not looked after. Before Rohit (Sharma) and Virat (Kohli) retired during the IPL, I had spoken to BCCI that I have discussed about my workloads going forward in a five Test-match series. I’ve spoken to the people who have managed my back. I’ve spoken to the surgeon as well, who’s always spoken to me about how smart you have to be about the workloads.
Jaiswal and Rahul are set to reunite at the top after starting and ending the series in Australia as opening partners with Rohit taking back his place in the middle of the series. If Nair is indeed the No. 3, and given Ravindra Jadeja’s near certainty as the allrounder, that one remaining batting position could go to either Sudharsan or Nitish Kumar Reddy, who scored a century in Australia.
The more important deliberations will be around the bowlers. Playing Reddy or Washington Sundar as the fifth bowler. The reluctance to pick a fifth bowler in Australia came under criticism as it was a departure from the successful Indian teams of the last six years, who prioritised taking 20 wickets over batting depth.
The presence of Shardul Thakur, who can bat at No. 8 and give India some batting depth, could give India a fourth somewhat genuine seam-bowling option, but it wasn’t yet clear Thakur would be preferred to Reddy. The duo bowled long spells in India’s first training session at Headingley.
Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj were all but certain to lead the pace attack. India called up Harshit Rana for this Test as cover for possible niggles to Siraj and Akash Deep, but both of them turned up fine and were fit to go. Akash, though, wasn’t a certainty as Prasidh Krishna’s high release and disconcerting bounce could be a point of difference India might be looking for. Unless they feel the unusually warm Headingley weather will turn over the weekend. In that case, Kuldeep Yadav could become a factor unless they choose the option of batting depth and go with Washington.
Courtesy: ESPNCricinfo