Don’t think picking and choosing is a fair comment to Bumrah: India’s assistant coach

Jasprit Bumrah had made himself available for only three of the five Tests in England and the Indian team management felt it was right to honour the star pacer’s call considering his workload, said assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate.

With the series on the line, Indian captain Shubman Gill and head coach Gautam Gambhir waited till the last minute to take a call on Bumrah, who played the first Test at Headingley, skipped the second match at Edgbaston, and featured in the games at Lord’s and Old Trafford.

Speaking to reporters after day one of the series-deciding fifth Test against England here, Doeschate said it is always a tough call leaving a player like Bumrah on the bench.

“It’s quite a complex issue around Bumrah. We obviously want to wheel him in, but we also want to respect where his body’s at, and on the basis of that, we just felt that it wasn’t worth including him in the squad,” he said on Thursday.

“He 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 only bowled in one innings in Manchester.

“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 to honour that call,” Ten Doeschate added.

The Oval surface is the greenest of the series and Bumrah would have been lethal in the prevailing conditions.

Is he 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.

“… 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.

“They don’t let it show when they’re around the group and that’s very important to creating a good culture for the guys who are playing to perform.”

Doeschate added that it made sense to play Bumrah in Manchester than keeping him for the final Test.

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“Every time I’ve answered this question I’ve spoken about like putting the pieces of the puzzles together and guys were baffled when we didn’t play him in the third Test,” he said.

“Our thinking was that the Oval, yes it’s got bounce but it’s normally a fairly good wicket for batting on, and we thought we’d roll the dice and if we’d won the toss we would have bowled.

“In hindsight you would have loved to have him here, but you would also have said if we come here 3-1 down that we didn’t use him there, so it’s trying to not guess but trying to look into the future and then see how we can manage him, and maybe England have got it spot on leaving the best bowling wicket for the last Test after he’s played three,” Doeschate said.