Jasprit Bumrah’s chances to play Edgbaston Test low, not entirely ruled out yet

EDGBASTON: The likelihood of Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah playing in the second Test between India and England at Edgbaston, starting from July 2 onwards, is low, as per ESPNCricinfo.

The Indian team management has already confirmed that Bumrah, owing to workload management and history of injuries, will be playing only three Tests, though the matches that these are for have not been confirmed.

ESPNCricinfo has learned that Bumrah’s chances to take the field for the second Test are low. During the Leeds Test, Bumrah got a five-wicket haul in the first innings and went wicketless while defending 371 runs, delivering a total of almost 44 overs during the match.

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As per ESPNCricinfo, India returned to the nets on Friday after travelling, with a marathon training session of around five hours. Bumrah was present at the ground, he did not bowl or bat. The nets session was a closed door affair and the information about him possibly doing some fitness drills or bowling alone was not possible to tell.

The session was visible from a street nearby the venue. Mohammed Siraj had a hit with the bat, before he joined Bumrah and Prasidh Krishna inside the venue.

As per ESPNCricinfo, the chances remains low that Bumrah takes the field on July 2. The pre-decided combination to play Bumrah was apparently for the first and third Tests, with a choice to be made for the fourth or fifth Test on the basis of the direction of the series. There are big gaps between first and second Tests and third and fourth Tests, of seven to eight days each.

He has not been ruled out entirely for Edgbaston and discussions around combination are yet to start. If Bumrah’s body is in good state, he could play the Test. There is an optional training on Saturday, followed by a session on Monday.

Arshdeep Singh, the left-armer pacer and Akash Deep bowled lengthy spells in nets, with Arshdeep bowling a lot with an old ball. He went around the wicket to right handers. This could have been something India decided to do after looking at the conditions in Birmingham. They could be expecting the reverse swing to be present as a factor.

The mood within the camp is not to excessively ponder over Headingley loss, despite many dominant performances in the match. The message so far is to not change playing style too much, but repeat the process to get into strong positions again and react in much better manner.

India’s Test squad for England series: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav. (ANI)