Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar has entered the Jasprit Bumrah workload debate, urging India to reduce their dependency on the fast bowler.
In the aftermath of India and England's drawn Test series, while most of the noise has been around how good the series has been, a section of critics and fans have directed their attention on Jasprit Bumrah's workload. The India's quick was scheduled to play only three out of the five Tests, and looked slightly off-colour by his third appearance in the series. As it turned out, India won the two Tests he did not feature in, even though Bumrah took the second-most wickets for India (14 scalps at 26.00), bowling about 24 overs an innings, on an average.
Manjrekar, who was part of the JioStar commentary panel during the Test series, took aim at Bumrah in his column for the Hindustan Times.
Manjrekar: 'No one, however great, is indispensable'
"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 Tests 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."
Manjrekar went on to say that if Bumrah "cannot play more than two matches in a row or sometimes even more", he should not be India's "frontline pick".
"Players who are match fit, eager, keen to play and perform should be picked any day for me over a highly skilled player," he added. "It will motivate such enthusiastic players even more."
Also read – Opinion: Stop the workload debate, India have managed Bumrah perfectly well
'Indian cricket must not adjust for Bumrah, Bumrah must'
Manjrekar agreed it was not the "idealistic position to take", but called it the right one for the "long term health of a team sport", and went on to praise Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep for replicating Bumrah's impact.
Siraj was the leading wicket-taker overall (23 wickets), while Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna took 27 wickets between them.
He maintained he is a Bumrah fan, but "if he really wants to serve Indian Test cricket, longevity and durability is 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 urged India to keep pushing Bumrah to his limits to get the best out of him: "By making some tough choices or working even harder on his fitness, this fitness bar can be raised to whatever levels one wants, like all fast bowling greats have done before him," he added.
Manjrekar's comments follow those of Sunil Gavaskar and Sandeep Patil in questioning Bumrah's selective approach to playing international cricket. For now, the question mark is whether he plays the Asia Cup or not. You can follow all the updates on India's squad here.
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