Test series: Did India miss a trick by revealing Bumrah's three-match plan?

It’s been two days since India succumbed to a demoralising defeat to England in the opening Test at The Leeds – and the big conundrum for the team management is now whether Jasprit Bumrah will be playing the second Test at Birmingham. While the cricketing world is aware that he will be playing three Tests, there is pressure building up on making the pace ace play in the second Test as it’s a question of survival in the series.

While netizens are up in arms about what changes are required in the playing XI and a handful of former England captains are reaping into Shubman Gill’s captaincy, there is a pertinent question raised in certain quarters whether the Indian team management missed a trick by announcing to the world that Bumrah will not be playing in all five Test matches. The Indian pace warhead himself admitted the same in an interview with the broadcasters ahead of the first Test – information which would allow the home team to prepare accordingly.

Raising the question, former Test opener Aakash Chopra felt that given the Indian team’s history of secrecy around naming their playing XI until the morning of the match, Bumrah’s availability for the number of Tests should have also stayed a ‘secret’.

Speaking on his Youtube channel, Chopra said: “Bumrah said he will play three matches only and I am thinking whether it was required to publicise it. Why was it not kept a secret? We don’t announce our team as well. So why was it necessary to reiterate it repeatedly before the start of the tour that he would play three matches only? Let them guess. You play whichever Tests you wish.”

England series: Jasprit Bumrah opens up on why he refused Test captaincy

A pertinent point, as both head coach Gautam Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar alos made it clear well in advance that Bumrah would be playing three Test matches and four if required.

Such an announcement, coupled with Bumrah going public that he had actually opted out of the captaincy race with an eye to managing his workload, will certainly help a gung-ho England to close in for the kill. The absence of Mohammed Shami, ostensibly on grounds of fitness, has now exposed Bumrah’s support cast of pace bowlers rather badly in the first Test.

If it was a faulty strategy by the Indian team to put all the cards on the table regarding one’s best weapon, the speedster’s wife and TV anchor Sanjana Ganesan had – albeit unwittingly – also broached the topic of Sunil Gavaskar’s fervent request that Bumrah should play all five Tests. “It’s a conversation which we can have later,” a smiling Bumrah had said to save the situation.  

Aakash Chopra, TV punditYou have played one and you know you can play only two of the remaining four matches, which is not a good thing. If you play the second as well, you will play one of three. So suddenly, the opposition gets into a great frame of mind that Bumrah, your biggest strength, is also not there. You can prepare pitches accordingly

Chopra said in his programme: “You have played one and you know you can play only two of the remaining four matches, which is not a good thing. If you play the second as well, you will play one of three. So suddenly, the opposition gets into a great frame of mind that Bumrah, your biggest strength, is also not there. You can prepare pitches accordingly.”

The buzz from the Indian dressing room, meanwhile, is that Bumrah – who picked up a fifer in England’s first innings – is likely to play alternate Tests. This effectively means that an under-pressure Indian team may miss their best weapon at Birmingham and be on the defensive from the word go.

After the conclusion of the first Test, Gambhir declared that the management won’t budge from a three-match cap for Bumrah. It’s a sensitive situation, but TV pundit Ravi Shastri warned the Indian camp to think twice before resting Bumrah in the second Test which begins on 2 July: “If he (Bumrah) was looking at a rest, you may have to think twice. If you don’t have him and then go 2-0 down, it could be an uphill task,’ Shastri said on Sky Sports.

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