Jasprit Bumrah has been out of action since he suffered a back spasm during the fifth Test against Australia in January.
India pacer Jasprit Bumrah has been out of competitive action since January this year, when he had sustained a back spasm. Bumrah suffered he back spasm during the fifth Test against Australia in Sydney in January, and eventually missed the home limited-overs series against England as well as the 2025 Champions Trophy, which India won.
Bumrah, undergoing rehabilitation at Bengaluru’s BCCI Centre of Excellence, remains doubtful for IPL 2025, where he represents Mumbai Indians (MI). Bumrah has endured a difficult time with his back in the last few years and even underwent surgery in 2023.
Former New Zealand speedster Shane Bond feels that should Bumrah have another injury in the same region, that could potentially end the Gujarat pacer’s cricket career.
“When he went off for scans, it was at Sydney, there was some messaging coming up around that he had sprains and stuff like that,” Bond told ESPNCricinfo. “I worried that it wasn’t going to be a sprain, it might be a bony injury around that area [the back]. I thought he may struggle to make the Champions Trophy if it was,” he added.
Shane Bond himself had his international career ended due to a persistent back issues. Like Bumrah, Bond too had to undergo a back surgery when he was 29 years old. Despite injuries continuing to haunt him, Bond continued playing before retiring from Tests at the age of 34. In less than a year since, Bond retired from all formats of the game.
“Look, I think Booms (Bumrah) will be fine, but it’s just that [workload] management [matters]. Looking at the tours and the schedule going forward, where are the opportunities to give him a break, but really where are the danger periods? And often it is that the [transition from] IPL to the Test championship will be a risk,” he added.
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The 49-year-old explained on the challenges of transitioning from T20s to Tests. “Anywhere you transition from particularly T20 to a Test match, it’s challenging. If you are playing a one-day series, it’s generally not too bad. You will play three games a week, you will have a practice, you are sort of in around that 40 overs [range], that’s pretty close to a Test match week anyway.
“But in T20, particularly in the IPL, when you might be playing three games in a week, there’s two days of travel, you might get one training [session], you are sort of bowling 20 overs maybe if you’re lucky. That’s sort of half of a Test match load or even under a half of, which then is a big jump and you are not bowling back-to-back days. That’s a big jump when you transition out of that,” he added.
The former Mumbai Indians bowling coach hoped Bumrah does not play more than two Tests in a series to manage his workload. “He’s too valuable for the next World Cup and stuff. So you’d be looking at five Tests in England, I wouldn’t want to be playing him in any more than two in a row. Coming out of the back end of the IPL into a Test match is going to be a huge risk. And so how do they manage that is going to be key.
“They may say, look, it’s four Test matches in total. Or three. If we can get him through the English summer and he’s fit, we can probably then go with some confidence that we can carry him across the rest of the formats. So that’s hard because he is your best bowler, but if he has another injury in the same spot, that could be a career-ender, potentially, because I’m not sure you can have surgery on that spot again,” he elaborated.
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