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Jasprit Bumrah has only played one T20I match in over a month. (BCCI)
Jasprit Bumrah had a rare off day during the T20I series opener against New Zealand in Nagpur earlier this week, going wicketless during the team’s resounding 48-run victory. On the day he completed 10 years in international cricket on Friday, Bumrah was back on the sidelines after the team management opted to rest him for the second T20I in Raipur, with Harshit Rana replacing him in the eleven.
With a T20 World Cup looming in less than a fortnight, the team management is particularly cautious about Bumrah’s workload, but it did not go down too well with former India batter Mohammed Kaif who questioned the decision to leave out the Gujarat speedster in the second game.
“Rest for what? What workload? Did he just come back after playing a lot? He has already come after taking proper rest. No, no, this thing just doesn’t make sense to me,” Kaif said on his YouTube channel.
“If you want to give rest, give rest to Arshdeep Singh. If you want to bring in Harshit Rana, if Axar Patel is injured and you need batting at number eight, then rest Arshdeep and bring in Bumrah. I mean, why are we even comparing here? There is no comparison at all,” Kaif added.
Bumrah was playing his first match in over a month in Nagpur, after having last played in Ahmedabad against South Africa on December 19. Bumrah had played three of the four T20Is then, picking up four wickets.
Kaif also said that if the management’s decision was due to an equation of combinations, Bumrah remains immune to such discussions.
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“If Bumrah was left out because of a combination, saying that you need batting at number eight, then that is wrong. No power in the world can keep Bumrah out because of team combination. The team will adjust the combination, but Bumrah will play in the XI,” he added.
India will play their third T20I against the Kiwis in Guwahati on Sunday, followed by matches in Visakhapatnam and Thiruvananthapuram.
English (US) ·