Indian cricket team fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah won’t be available for all five Tests in the upcoming series against England, BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar has said. Indian cricket team fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah won’t be available for all five Tests in the coming series against England, BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar said on Saturday.
BCCI released the team for the next series with Shubman Gill as the new skipper and Rishabh Pant as his deputy. In the press conference, Agarkar mentioned that Bumrah would not play all the matches because of his fitness issues.
“Don’t expect him to be available for all five Tests. Whether we get four or three, we will judge that based on how the series panning out and what his workload is. Even if he’s available for 3-4 Tests, he’ll be a valuable addition for us. Just glad he’s in the squad. He’s more valuable to us as a player,” Agarkar stated.
The selectors’ choice of leadership for the team remained on expected lines in the wake of the retirement of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Emerging left-handed batter B Sai Sudharsan got his first Test call. Karun Nair, who last played for the national set-up seven years ago, is also a part of the team. A surprise exclusion was seamer Mohammed Shami, who was not considered fit enough for the long series.
“Last season or so we have considered Shubman (as a leader). We are optimistic that he is the man who is going (to lead the team). It is a high-pressure role but he is a great player. We wish him good luck,” chief selector Ajit Agarkar said after releasing the team.
On Shami, he included: “His workload is not where it should be. We were expecting him to be available but it is unfortunate. Currently he is not dully fit. From tour of Australia, Harshit Rana and Sarfaraz Khan have been omitted.”.
India squad for England: Shubman Gill (captain), Rishabh Pant (WK and Vice Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudarshan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep and Kuldeep Yadav.
