India vs England Tests: Why Jasprit Bumrah's workload is a a hefty challenge for Shubman Gill and Gautam Gambhir

​Perspectives on cricket vary, more so in a country like India where opinion on this sport can evoke extreme reactions on many levels. One of those topics that gets brushed under the carpet amongst the public is about Jasprit Bumrah's bowling workload. 

 

Since his international debut in 2016, Bumrah has briskly climbed up the ladder, not only becoming India's bowling spearhead but also arguably the finest all-format bowler in world cricket. During his initial IPL days with Mumbai Indians, it was evident that the league had unearthed a white-ball gem for India, a kind of bowler that the country yearned for in limited-overs cricket. However, not many felt that he could make it big in Test cricket due to his unusual bowling action and immense stress that it would cause on his back. 

 

Seven years since his Test debut, Bumrah is still going strong in the longest format, breaking new records and setting benchmarks for the modern era. India have done reasonably well to manage his workload, given that Bumrah is also a key part of the ODI and T20I teams as well. Yes, there were instances of ineffective planning and that cost Bumrah multiple ICC tournaments, the latest being the Champions Trophy held this year. Since the latest injury, Bumrah along with the BCCI medical staff have mapped out careful rehab plans and workload management schedules for the pacer. 

 

One of the key aspects of the workload management plan is to not play Bumrah in successive Test matches unless extremely critical to the team's cause. One look at the sheer workload that Bumrah has carried over the last 18 months gives you a scary picture. Since January 2024, Bumrah has bowled 410.4 overs in Test cricket, comfortably the most by a pacer in the world. The next best is Mitchell Starc and he has bowled 40.1 overs lesser - astonishing numbers!

 

In the recently concluded Headingley Test, Bumrah bowled 43.4 overs, roughly 24 percent of the overs bowled by India in the game. To put it in perspective, Bumrah bowled 47.2 overs across the entire IPL season in the 12 games that he played and do remember that these games come over two months. Here, he had to bowl the overs across a five-day timeline with infinite amount of stress on his body.

 

It is a classic case of workload management gone wrong but not much that skipper Shubman Gill could have done about it, given how inefficient his other bowlers had been in the entire match. Mohammed Siraj did show signs of potency on the final day and was arguably India's best bowler on the fifth day but he along with Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur were all guilty of throwing their ace bowler under the bus earlier in the game. 

 

To delve deeper into this, India's pacers bowled nine maidens in the Leeds Test, eight of which were by Bumrah while Siraj was the other. In a game where India's pacers bowled close to 136 overs, these are hugely disappointing numbers. It also points to the fact that England's ultra-aggressive methods threw India's bowlers off their lines and lengths far too frequently. It is a mistake that the tourists cannot afford at Edgbaston, if they want to compete in the series. 

 

On the day that India's squad for the England Tests was announced, chief selector Ajit Agarkar and head coach Gautam Gambhir had revealed that Bumrah wouldn't play more than three Tests in the series. Even after the defeat at Headingley, Gambhir maintained that there would be no change in plans and has instead backed the other bowlers to get the job done. It is a realistic assessment from Gambhir, because it is easy for the think tank to persist with Bumrah for one more game in the hope that India can draw level at Edgbaston. Even if that does happen, it would be fatal to then play him at Lord's although the series might be at 1-1. 

 

Causing a burnout for Bumrah would be the last thing on India's mind at the moment and Gambhir knows it all too well. It is a tight rope to walk for him and Gill, a test where they could find themselves in situations where they would have nothing to gain but everything to lose. While Bumrah did bowl full steam at an optional net session on Saturday (June 28), chances of the pace bowler featuring at Edgbaston look bleak. Apart from workload management, the other reason for this could be the fact that there are just three days between this Test match and the Lord's game that begins on July 10. 

 

Given England's general struggles at Lord's and the help the seamers could extract from it, Bumrah featuring in that game seems to be a logical call for the Indian team management. There would be more than a week's gap before the Old Trafford Test match and it could mean an outside chance of Bumrah featuring in successive Test matches, even if against the medical staff's words. 

 

For all this, India will need to compete at Edgbaston and hope to avoid a defeat, if they cannot seal a victory. England's style of play means that draws are generally not in the pipeline, so Gill's men will have to play out of their skins if they are to leave Birmingham with the series in the balance. Getting the bowling attack will go a long way in helping India's chances. And of course, they'll certainly need to catch better. Over the last 24 months, India has been the team with the highest catch percentage in Test cricket but what transpired at Headingley was the exact opposite. 

 

Unlike Starc and Pat Cummins (who is third on the list of pacers with most overs bowled), Bumrah is a first-choice pick in all three formats for India. Unless a tournament or bilateral series is of extreme low priority, he is certain to feature in the playing XI and for a player of such potency, workload management becomes critical. It would also demand a great degree of intuition, particularly in the ongoing series where India are already 0-1 down in the series with four games left. 

 

However, with an T20 World Cup in India next year and the ODI World Cup in 2027, India have a lot on their plate in white-ball cricket. Add to this the new cycle of World Test Championship that is underway with the England series and needless to say, Bumrah's presence is pivotal if India are to challenge for silverware in all three tournaments. They did manage to win the 2025 Champions Trophy without him but that is a scenario that is a probability that is not easy to repeat.

 

With just over two days to go for the Edgbaston Test, India would do better to correct their mistakes from Leeds than to overtly depend on Bumrah in the second Test match. For an inexperienced attack and newbie captain, it is difficult to play without their strike bowler in adverse conditions but these are the situations that create heroes out of normal cricketers. 

 

The question that lingers is - who in that Indian bowling attack is ready to become the hero? Only time will tell. 

 

For now, all we know is that Bumrah's workload management plan is on the right path and being critical of it is to live in a parallel world. A world where injuries in cricket don't happen at all. 

 

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