"You Have To Be More Cunning....": Australia Pace Legend's Advice For Jasprit Bumrah On Workload

Jasprit Bumrah has not played for India since September, 2022, due to a back injury which he suffered ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup. While the fast bowler was stated to make his return in the series against Sri Lanka or New Zealand, it was further delayed due to match fitness concerns. Australia pace legend Jeff Thompson believes that Bumrah will soon have to take a call on his workload and for the sake of longevity, he will have to prioritise either limited overs cricket or Test cricket.

“There is so much cricket. They play all year round. We didn't do that. We used to play seasons, the summer season. Occasionally we would go to England for our winter. It was a long tour, four and a half months. But generally we just played the summer so we would gradually build up after Christmas full on. Because I knew I was going to get rest,” Thomson said on Revsportz.

“Now, you can't do that. So you have to pace yourself to be around. That's why they have all those back up bowlers and they rest people. In our day we didn't rest. If we had a rest someone else would take our spot. It is a matter of having to rest these days because it is a 12-month a year job.”

Thomson also spoke from experience as a fast bowler that a cricketer like Bumrah requires rest in order to recuperate and the amount of money on offer in T20s can turn out to be a lucrative factor.

“Well, Bumrah has to work out what he wants to play, short formats of the game or Test matches or both. If I think about if I was playing now, it would be very hard to play Test matches. Especially when you get so much money in the short version of the game. That just makes your longevity better. We didn't have to think about money in our days because there was no money. Now it's a business. The only one who is going to look after you is yourself. So, you got to work out how long I am going to play for and how am I going to manage that because no one else is going to. I think you have to be more cunning these days in workload and watch what you got to play and can't play. If you are good enough, they are going to pick you any way so you should be able to pull the strings,” he said.

Topics mentioned in this article

Jasprit Bumrah Cricket India Cricket Team Australia Cricket Team Jeffery Robert Thomson