Will Jasprit Bumrah play all five Tests vs England? Gautam Gambhir opens up

Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir has stated that the Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah will play two more games in the five-match Test series against England. He stressed that managing the workload is very important for the seamer.

Notably, while announcing the Test squad for England tour, the BCCI selection committee, led by Ajit Agarkar, confirmed that Bumrah would be able to play only three of the five Tests in England. 

Interestingly, Bumrah started the Leeds Test with his 12th five-wicket haul away from home. However, he couldn’t grab a wicket in the second innings as England batters opted not to lose their temperament against the Indian seamer.

"No, we won't change the plans. I think for us to manage his workload is more important because there's a lot of cricket going forward and we know what he brings on the table as well. Before he came on the show, it was already decided that he's going to play three Test matches,” Gambhir stated at the post-match press conference.

Furthermore, Gambhir stated that despite Bumrah's absence, India has enough potential in their bowling attack. Interestingly, barring Bumrah, other seamers Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur couldn’t create a significant impact.

"But let's see how his body turns out. We haven't decided which two other Test matches he's going to play. [Even without Bumrah] we absolutely have the bowling attack [to compete]. We believe in them. We trust in them,” he added.

“When we pick the squad, we pick the squad on trust, not on hope. As I just mentioned, those are inexperienced bowlers but they will keep getting better. We saw in this Test match as well that for the first four days, even on day five, we were in a position where we could have won the Test match. We believe and we trust that these boys will deliver for us,” he concluded.

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