The Indian team management is yet to decide which Tests Jasprit Bumrah will feature in during the five-match series in England, but head coach Gautam Gambhir and newly-appointed captain Shubman Gill made it clear that there’s enough depth in its pace attack.
“We haven’t taken that call, which three games is he going to play,” Gambhir said on Thursday. “We are going to have a discussion with him and (it will) depend on the series as well. A lot will depend on the results of the series, where the series is heading. That is something which I am sure he is very well aware of as well and that is important.”
While announcing the squad for the series last month, the chairman of the selection committee, Ajit Agarkar, said that Bumrah had been advised by medical staff not to risk playing back-to-back Tests. The decision was taken considering his workload management in the wake of his back injury during the fifth Test against Australia in Sydney in January.
But Gambhir believes that this will also be an opportunity for the pace attack, comprising Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh and Shardul Thakur to stand up and deliver. “I have said it before during the Champions Trophy (which Bumrah missed) as well, it will give someone the opportunity to put his hand up and we have got enough talent there. I know that he is quality but we have got enough quality apart from him as well in the squad,” the head coach stated.
Under the leadership of Gill, the five Tests against England will be India’s first in the 2025-27 World Test Championship cycle, and the young captain too believes that there’s enough firepower in the bowling department.
“We have picked enough bowlers and we have a good enough pace battery. A lot of fast bowlers are in a great space to be able to win us Test matches from any situation or any position,” Gill said.
“Obviously, when you have someone like him (Bumrah), depending on how many matches he would play, whenever he would come back and play the match for us, it would be a great sight for us,” the captain said.
“But I think we have a great mix of bowlers and a great set of bowlers who can get the job for the team done,” he added.
With Bumrah likely to play just three games and no Mohammed Shami in the squad, it certainly will be a huge challenge for the young bowling unit to make an impact in the English conditions, when the action gets underway in Headingley from June 20.
