Ace Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah has been ruled out of the two-match Test series against Sri Lanka and will not travel to the island nation for the series in August. According to reports, it has been learnt that the BCCI medical team has advised Jasprit Bumrah not to rush back to action as he needs more time to completely recover from the left knee issue he has been nursing since the T20 World Cup earlier this year. No replacement player has been named yet.
Jasprit Bumrah has not bowled since the second ODI of the England series in Cardiff on July 16. Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out of the final match of the series, played at Lord’s, with BCCI saying an impact injury while fielding in the Cardiff ODI was the reason. It is learned that immediately after the England series got over, Bumrah took an injection to the knee based on the plan drawn up by the BCCI medical team for his long-term fitness.
Jasprit Bumrah reached the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru this week and underwent fitness tests. It is understood that the medical team felt Bumrah could risk sitting out for an extended period if he returned to bowling right away as that could potentially aggravate the issue.
Details of the exact nature and extent of injury are yet to be confirmed, but Bumrah had travelled to the CoE in late March as well to get conditioning and fitness clearances for the IPL, which had come a day prior to Mumbai Indians’ season opener. Bumrah played 13 matches in the IPL season, sitting out MI’s last fixture.
India’s injury woes with Jasprit Bumrah added
For the record, India are already without the services of Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy, who are out with hamstring and quadriceps injuries, respectively. Washington Sundar has also been ruled out of the first Test with a hamstring injury, while Akash Deep is in the middle of a long lay-off following stress reactions on his back.
Immediately after India lost the ODI series in England, captain Shubman Gill had put the spotlight on the frequent injuries that the India players had been going down with saying “if after every match some player is missing then somewhere we are missing a trick.” Gill’s larger fear was if the trend continued, it would have a severe impact on India’s performance at the 2027 World Cup, which will be played next October-November in southern Africa. Gill had said that if his players were not able to finish a two-to-three-match series, it would be a concern at the global tournament, where teams will play a minimum of 11 games.
Shubman Gill’s views on the spate of injuries plaguing Indian team
Speaking to reporters post the ODI series in England, Shubman Gill had said, “It becomes a little difficult that you come to the ground on the morning and you come to know a player has a niggle, then it’s almost like do you want to take a chance. Some player is 80% fit, you are playing with five bowlers and if this player comes out after bowling five overs, then who will bowl? This is difficult. So as a group we need improved our fitness and all those things.”Â
The first Test in Sri Lanka begins on August 15th in Galle and the second is on August 23rd at the SSC in Colombo. Ahead of the series, the team will play a three-day practice match in Colombo, starting on August 7th. The series in Sri Lanka is India’s first in the World Test Championship cycle since the 2-0 home defeat to South Africa in November. Before that, they had drawn a five-Test series in England 2-2 and beaten West Indies 2-0 at home. India are fifth in the WTC standings, while Sri Lanka are sixth.
India’s Updated Squad for the Sri Lanka Tests
Shubman Gill (c), KL Rahul (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant (wk), B Sai Sudharsan*, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Devdutt Padikkal, Saransh Jain.
*Sai Sudharsan is subject to fitness clearance.
Jasprit Bumrah’s injury a concern for the longer term
It is unfortunate that Jasprit Bumrah is once again missing out on an important series for India. Though his workload is being managed as much as possible, he is still getting injured frequently. Jasprit Bumrah has to work out a plan with the BCCI & management on how to be fit for India.
For that, if he has to skip IPL, so be it. Nothing is above Team India, not even Mumbai Indians. Will BCCI take that decision of making Bumrah skip IPL, and will MI allow that to happen? It looks unlikely, but anything can happen. There is thinking to be done, and fitness standards have to improve for India to do well in overseas Tests. This is not a good sign. The only good thing is spin will predominate in Sri Lanka, and so India may get away with it. But this is an area to address.
We can only hope and wish Bumrah a speedy recovery at this stage and hope the others punch above their weight in Sri Lanka.
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