He is currently India's second-highest wicket-taker in the tournament.
Former India batter Mohammad Kaif has expressed concerns over India’s bowling strategy in the ongoing Asia Cup 2025, specifically with the use of Jasprit Bumrah.
The defending champions, India, have been the dominant side in the tournament so far, winning all five matches. They have qualified for the final, ahead of the last Super Four clash against Sri Lanka on September 26 in Dubai.
Previously, under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy, Bumrah’s overs were spread out within the first powerplay, middle overs, and at death. He was largely looked at as a wicket-taker. The captain would save his overs to pull things back in crucial situations. The right-arm pacer often bowled just one over in power play and middle overs. He would return for two more at death, thereby maximising his impact across all phases of the innings.
However, in the ongoing Asia Cup, Bumrah has been bowling three overs in the powerplay and just one at the death. Kaif believes that the current captain, Suryakumar Yadav’s approach to using Bumrah in the powerplay is linked to the bowler’s fitness and workload management. Having dealt with a back injury in recent times, the 31-year-old quick is preferring to bowl the maximum of his overs while his body is warmed up. This reduces the risk of another strain.
While this modus operandi helps the team to manage Bumrah, Kaif expressed concerns over the strategy. He claimed that this could leave India exposed in the death overs against stronger teams like Australia, New Zealand, or England in the T20 World Cup next year.
“Bumrah under Rohit would generally bowl overs 1, 13, 17, 19. Under Surya, in Asia cup, he bowled a three-overs spell at the start. To avoid injury, Bumrah these days prefers to bowl while his body is warmed up. 1 over of Bumrah in the remaining 14 overs is a huge relief for batters, against stronger teams at the World Cup, this could hurt India,” wrote Mohammed Kaif on his X handle.
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In the ongoing tournament, India have three spinners (Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, and Axar Patel), one pacer (Bumrah), and two seam pace all-rounders (Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube) to do the job. India are using Bumrah’s three overs to create pressure at the top. Then the spinners are introduced, who are getting rewarded with wickets.
This pattern was first noticed during the T20I series against England earlier this year. One each from Arshdeep Singh and Mohammed Shami played Bumrah’s role.
The drawback of playing with this strategy is that the team is heavily reliant on all-rounders to do the fifth bowler’s job. This could backfire if Bumrah or one of the three spinners are having a bad day. Additionally, the role of spinners gets reduced when the dew comes, as the ball slips from their hands.
However, the strategy has been working nicely for India as they reached the summit clash quite comfortably. Notably, under SKY’s T20I leadership so far, India have won 22 out of 26 matches.
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