Jasprit Bumrah has been released from India's squad after he opted out of the fifth Test in London.
Before the start of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, Jasprit Bumrah was clear about playing three Tests out of the five. And he has lived up to his promise. Except a few experts feel that he could have gone further, by playing in the fifth Test in London. The Indian speedster took the decision citing reasons for workload management. Bumrah possesses a unique bowling action, which puts his body under more stress than a usual fast bowler would. Hence, it is important that he take the necessary precautions in order to sustain his career as long as he can.
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The premier pacer has spoken about his willingness to play the longest format of the game for as long as he can. In an interview with Dinesh Karthik before the ongoing series, he broke the ice on a lot of topics surrounding his communication with the BCCI about the leadership role. One of the topics he touched upon was workload management. Bumrah is in constant touch with his medical team who have asked him to regulate the amount of stress his body goes under. Hence, the speedster played just three Tests on the tour.
Former Australian pacer Glenn McGrath has weighed in on the workload management narrative which has been doing the rounds. He pointed out that a fast bowler’s body goes through an awful lot throughout the course of one’s career. Most importantly, he also spoke about what India’s premier pacer might need to focus on to keep him fit for longer periods of time. McGrath also touched upon the importance of an off-season for any fast bowler.
“Unfortunately, what he does is pretty tough on the body. Especially when you’re playing a lot of cricket, there’s no time to have an off-season. He really needs to get a lot stronger physically and fitter to put up with the stresses of fast bowling. And he needs an off-season. It will get him strong through the season”, said McGrath about Bumrah.
This is India’s most important question at the moment. What the Indian team lacks on this tour that they probably had on previous SENA tours, is a lethal pace battery. This bowling attack lacks experience. The likes of Prasidh Krishna have constantly leaked runs and haven’t managed to create a lot of impact on English wickets. Therefore, Mohammed Siraj has had to do most of the heavy lifting for the bowling unit.
McGrath also spoke about how India can work towards maximizing their impact in the longest format of the game. He spoke about creating a pool of lethal bowlers who can assist each other from both ends. Having just one lethal bowler in Bumrah makes the workload effectively grow on him and doesn’t leave the team with more options. In a long five-match series, a team wants their bowlers to be fresh. If the bowlers from one end are bowling tight lines and picking wickets, the bowlers from the other end cannot be leaking runs constantly.
The Australian legend also insisted that Bumrah should continue to play all the three formats of the game. He went on to say that, to limit a bowler of his calibre to just one format would be a shame. But having said that, he also stressed that Jasprit Bumrah should do what works the best for him in this situation. This is simply because there is absolutely no point in putting stress on the body which is already going through a lot.
“You want your best bowler bowling. And he’ll want to bowl all the time. You need another group of fast bowlers coming through to balance it out so that he doesn’t have to bowl long spells. You’ve got other bowlers bowling equally as well to carry the workload. To limit him to Test cricket would be a shame. But, he’s got to work out what’s best for him”, said McGrath.
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563 Test wickets. 29 five-wicket hauls. Three 10-wicket hauls. These numbers don’t come just to anyone. But for a bowler of McGrath’s guile, these numbers showcase what an astute bowler he was. The Australian pacer spoke about how he used to stay injury free, even after a severe back injury initially in his career. He also laid down his approach towards the process of avoiding unnecessary things in the bowling action to maximize his potential.
Upon being asked about keeping injuries at bay, McGrath pointed out at three things which kept him in good stead throughout his career. He focused on how good a bowling action he had, and also narrated that he used to keep it as simple as he could. He credited his genetics too, and mentioned that his bone density was really high which helped him. Last but not the least, he credited himself for the work ethic which he used to follow back then. As a matter of fact, he stated the 99% of the bowlers need an off-season to get prepared for the next season.
“Three things held me in good stead. One was I had a pretty good action, short delivery strides, so I wasn’t putting the stress on my body that other bowlers would. So I had a good action. Good genetics also helped. My bone density is really high, so that probably held me in good stead as well. And then work ethic off the field”, the fast bowler concluded.
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