The senior selection committee is set to rest Jasprit Bumrah for the upcoming white-ball series against England at home in the New Year. The star pacer, who has been nominated for the ICC Cricketer of the Year award for 2024, will be given a breather ahead of the much-anticipated Champions Trophy, India Today has learnt.
India will host England in a five-match T20I series and a three-match ODI series from 22 January to 12 February. The ODI series concludes just seven days before the start of the Champions Trophy.
Jasprit Bumrah has been leading India’s pace attack in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series in Australia. The fast bowler has shouldered the responsibility of an inexperienced pace line-up in the absence of Mohammed Shami, who was ruled out of the series due to injury concerns.
Bumrah bowled 53.2 overs – the most in a single Test in his career – during India’s 184-run defeat in Melbourne. Over four Tests, he has bowled 141.2 overs, the highest workload for any bowler from either side in the series so far.
Bumrah is expected to play a crucial role in India’s fortunes during the New Year’s Test in Sydney, likely shouldering the majority of the bowling workload in the series finale. By the end of the Sydney Test, Bumrah would have played 10 Tests within a span of four months.
India captain Rohit Sharma, speaking to the press after the team’s defeat in Melbourne, acknowledged the risks of overbowling Bumrah, especially given his extensive workload during the series.
“There is to be honest (risk of overbowling Bumrah). He has bowled a lot of overs there’s no doubt about it. But again, every Test match we play, we keep that in mind, the workloads of all the bowlers in fact. But again, if somebody is in such great form, you want to try and maximise that form how-much-ever you can and that is what we’ve been trying to do with Bumrah,” Rohit said.
“There comes a time when you need to step back a little bit and give him that little bit of extra breather as well. So we’ve been very careful. I’ve been very careful. I talked to him about how he feels and stuff like that. So yeah, those things should be managed carefully, and I’m trying to do that on the field,” he added.
INDIA VS ENGLAND, T20I AND ODI SERIES SCHEDULE
- 1st T20I on Wednesday, January 22 in Kolkata
- 2nd T20I on Saturday, January 25 in Chennai
- 3rd T20I on Tuesday, January 28 in Rajkot
- 4th T20I on Friday, January 31 in Pune
- 5th T20I on Sunday, February 2 in Mumbai
- 1st ODI on Thursday, February 6 in Nagpur
- 2nd ODI on Sunday, February 9 in Cuttack
- 3rd ODI on Wednesday, February 12 in Ahmedabad
