India tour of England 2025: Jasprit Bumrah set to miss second Test due to workload management

Down 0-1 in the series, India’s chances of levelling the series at Edgbaston are set to take a massive hit with pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah unlikely feature in the clash. The 31-year-old send down a whopping 44 overs at Headingley as India struggled for control whenever he wasn’t operating from a particular end.

While Bumrah shone with a five-wicket haul in the first innings, he looked increasingly fatigued in the second innings and was mostly on the sidelines towards the end of the game, raising questions of whether he had been overbowled in the Test match. Given that the medical staff has advised against playing him in successive Test matches, India’s think tank had pre-decided on giving Bumrah just three Tests in the series, a decision that head coach Gautam Gambhir maintained would not change despite the loss in the series opener.

"No, we won't change the plans,” Gambhir had said at the post-match press conference in Headingley.

“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. But let's see how his body turns out. We haven't decided which two other Test matches he's going to play.”

If Bumrah doesn’t play at Edgbaston, it would mean a step up for Mohammed Siraj who shall have to shoulder the pace attack that is extremely short on experience. Prasidh Krishna would possibly keep his spot in the playing XI but the visitors are likely to make a change with Shardul Thakur unless they think that the Mumbai pacer is good enough to feature as the third pacer in the XI. It would be an ironical move, considering that he was heavily under-bowled in Headingley. India would then have to take a call about the other seamer’s spot with a possible debut for Arshdeep Singh not improbable.

It would, however, be a left-field move although including Arshdeep would give India more variance in their bowling attack with the addition of a left-arm pacer. A more realistic move would be to bring in Akash Deep, who is higher in the pecking order when it comes to India’s pace attack. Trust Gambhir to come up with something unexpected but the one thing he was adamant about at the press conference in Headingley is about the bench strength in Bumrah’s absence.

“[Even without Bumrah] we absolutely have the bowling attack [to compete]. We believe in them. We trust in them. 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."

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