"Great Lesson To...": Sanjay Manjrekar On India Winning 2 England Tests Without Jasprit Bumrah
Jasprit Bumrah played just three of the five Test matches in the recently-concluded series in England, putting himself under severe criticism.
- Jasprit Bumrah missed two Tests in England due to workload management concerns
- Interestingly, India won only two matches in England and those were the ones that Bumrah missed out
- "This series has been a great lesson to the Indian selectors and to us too" wrote Sanjay Manjrekar
Jasprit Bumrah's workload management has been a massive talking point. After an injury during the India vs Australia 2024/25 Test series ruled him out of action for more than three months, the team management has become more careful than ever before regarding the player's fitness. As a result, Bumrah played just three of the five Test matches in the recently-concluded series in England, putting himself under severe criticism. Bumrah played the first, third and fourth match of the series, while missing out the second and fifth game.
Several questions were raised over Bumrah's decision of skipping matches to maintain his fitness. Some even went on to say that the player could not "pick and choose" matches. Recently, former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar also threw light on the topic and said that Bumrah should not be the frontline pick for India if he could not play more than two consecutive matches.
The India vs England Test series ended in a thrilling 2-2 draw, and interestingly both of India's victories came in the matches that Bumrah didn't play. In the three games that the right-arm pacer played, India lost two and drew one.
"...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," wrote Sanjay Manjrekar in his column for Hindustan Times.
"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. If he cannot play more than two matches in a row or sometimes even more than one, he must not be your frontline pick."
India Cricket Team
England Cricket Team
Jasprit Bumrah