“Jasprit Bumrah is fit, but we won’t play him” - Aakash Chopra slams Indian team management for resting Bumrah

Former Indian cricketer and commentator Aakash Chopra has questioned the Indian team management for resting Jasprit Bumrah for the second Test in Birmingham, citing workload management. 

Interestingly, ahead of the England tour and at the time of the squad selection, it was made clear that Bumrah would play only three out of the five Tests on the England tour, as confirmed by the chief selector Ajit Agarkar.

However, the decision to rest Bumrah after India lost the Leeds Test didn’t go down well with Chopra. He asserted that England would prepare a very dry surface for the Lord’s Test, keeping in mind that Bumrah would take part in that game.

"Jasprit Bumrah is fit, but we won't play him. We are 1-0 down, we are thinking about 1-1, but it would be slightly difficult to think about it with Bumrah, or the Lord's pitch would be better for Bumrah. How do you know that pitch would be better? A very dry surface might be provided, as it happened in the WTC final," Chopra said on his YouTube channel.

Furthermore, Chopora also reckoned that India would have gone ahead with their counter-attack approach by including Bumrah in the XI and take all 20 wickets to level the series 1-1 instead of thinking of the Lord’s game now.

"If you have shown your hand, that you won't play Bumrah here, but at Lord's, it's a greater incentive for England to prepare a pitch where Bumrah gets nullified. Also, would it not be better to move forward at 1-1 than 2-0? I am not saying that you cannot win the match with the XI you have played, but your best chance of taking 20 wickets, is it with Bumrah or without Bumrah?" he added.

At stumps on Day 1, India were at 310/5 with Shubman Gill batting on 114 and Ravindra Jadeja scoring 41*

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