India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate has broken his silence on Jasprit Bumrah’s absence for the final test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.
He cited the workload management and past injuries, insisting decisions were made in the team’s best interest.
He said that it is ‘quite a complex issue’ revolving around ace pacer. “We obviously want to wheel him out, but we also want to respect where his body is at, and on the basis of that, we just felt that it wasn’t worth including him in the squad,” said ten Doeschate.
Doeschate also admitted that Jasprit Bumrah has bowled a lot of overs, but it is also important to manage his workload to recover.
“Bumrah has bowled a large number of overs. I know it doesn’t always seem like that because he’s only played three Tests and he’s only bowled in one innings in Manchester,” said Doeschate.
“But, if you look at the loads, he’s bowled a lot of overs, and like he did say coming into the tour, he was going to be available for three games, and we just felt it was right on that call,” he said.
The assistant coach also said it wasn’t fair to comment that Bumrah was picking and choosing games, considering his injury-prone past and back surgeries.
“I don’t think picking and choosing is a fair comment to Bumrah. He did say he was going to play three games, he left it up to us which three he played. We’ve tried to manage the situation, it’s not ideal. I guess giving those guys attention, the guys who aren’t playing particularly when you’re carrying 18, is important,” said Doeschate.
“We make them know that you’re making all the decisions in good faith, in the best interest of the team, and just on that, all the guys who haven’t played, they’ve been fantastic. They’ve trained the house down, they’re disappointed when they get left out,” he added.
Coming to the game, India went on to score 204 runs losing 6 wickets by the end of day 01. Karun Nair and Washington Sundar went on to remain unbeaten at stumps.
Karun Nair is the only scorer having smashed a fifty in the innings. Meanwhile Sai Sudharsan went on to score 38 runs and day 02 can be a match up between the sides at The Oval.
