‘Bumrah Must Not Be Your Frontline Pick…': Selectors Asked to Have Guts to Take ‘Hard Calls'
Former cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar asserted that players who are fit and eager to perform should be preferred ahead of the big names.
The discussion around Jasprit Bumrah's limited availability for a longer Test series doesn't seem to be ending soon. The World no. 1 was part of India's squad for the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy but featured in just three Test matches, citing workload management. Though India won both matches that Bumrah skipped, several the ace pacer's absences due to his workload management is being questioned.
Several experts have opined that a player should only be picked in the squad if he is available for selection for every match, barring any injury sustained during the tour. While the debate continues, former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has stated that Bumrah shouldn't be the team's frontline pick.
In his latest column for the Hindustan Times, Manjrekar lauded India's terrific performance in England but had a critical approach while writing about Bumrah.
'The game will always show us the mirror, however much we try and gloss over things. It was poetic justice that the two Tests India won were two matches Bumrah did not play."
'This should embolden the Indian selectors to make some hard choices when it comes to big-name players. This series has been a great lesson to them and to us too, the two Test victories India achieved did not feature Virat (Kohli), (Cheteshwar) Pujara, Rohit (Sharma), (Mohammed) Shami and Bumrah too! It reminded us of the eternal truth of sport and life, no one, however great, is indispensable.
'And this is how India must handle Bumrah. If he cannot play more than two matches in a row or sometimes even more than one, he must not be your frontline pick," Manjrekar wrote.
The former cricketer asserted that players who are fit and eager to perform should be preferred ahead of the big names.
'Players who are match fit, eager, keen to play and perform should be picked any day for me over a highly skilled player. It will motivate such enthusiastic players even more," Manjrekar further wrote.
'In this series, Akash Deep & Siraj replicated the Bumrah impact in the two wins, of course, this is not likely to become a pattern, but it should give the selectors the guts to take hard calls on big-name players, just as they do with Kuldeep Yadav.
'As for Bumrah, of whom I am a fan, if he really wants to serve Indian Test cricket, longevity and durability are an imperative for him; it's after all the true test of a great athlete is to still turn up when not 100% fit and deliver.
'Indian cricket must not adjust for Bumrah, Bumrah must. That is, if he wants to," he added.
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