T20 World Cup 2022: 'We tried to hurry up Jasprit Bumrah, and see what has happened,' chief selector Chetan Sharma

During the build-up to the T20 World Cup, did India try to push Jasprit Bumrah back from injury and into the squad, Chetan Sharma, the chief selector, seemed to imply as much during a virtual press conference on Monday to unveil four squads for two trips – New Zealand and Bangladesh – in November-December 2022. Bumrah was ruled out of the Asia cup but was picked for the T20I series against Australia and South Africa.

He was rested from the first game against Australia but then played the next two only to find himself out of the team again for the South Africa series. Time was running out for India as he had already been included in the WC squad. The selectors named his replacement at the last moment and that too when the likes of Shami, Siraj and Thakur had reached Australia to prepare for the WC.

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We hope to see him back for the Australia series in 2023: Chetan Sharma

Bumrah has been undertaking a rigorous recovery programme at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru since then. Even though he expressed optimism that Bumrah will be available soon, Sharma was noncommittal about dates.

“I always say that we have to manage players and when we do that, the media sometimes writes about why some players are not playing, different players are playing, different captains are coming. The selection committee has to deal with workload management which we follow very closely. Now, we tried to hurry up Jasprit Bumrah, we tried to get him with the World Cup coming. And see what has happened? We are without Jasprit Bumrah in the World Cup”

Said Chief selector Chetan Sharma in an interaction with the media

“The NCA team and the medical team are looking after him very well. And he will definitely be part and parcel of the team very soon, in the sense definitely be against Australia (series in 2023). But for Bangladesh, we are a little cautious with Jasprit Bumrah as opposed to like we tried to bring him back early (post the Asia Cup). So we don’t want to do that this time. The NCA team is working on him properly and I hope he will return soon to play for India.”

Sharma further added.