Sunil Gavaskar questions rationale behind resting key player for fourth Test

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar is known for his bold comments. This time, he questioned Team India’s decision to rest their star bowler Jasprit Bumrah for the fourth Test at Ranchi. Bumrah was rested for this Test and was replaced by Bengal fast bowler Akash Deep, who was making his debut.

Akash Deep impressed in his maiden international outing picking up three wickets in his first spell on Day 1. He dismissed Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope in the same over and then bowled Zak Crawley with a peach of a delivery that came in to smash into his off-stump.

Deep’s exceptional performance on debut was applauded by several cricketing pundits. His new-ball burst helped India put England into early trouble.

‘It wasn’t in the Indian team’s immediate interest:’ Sunil Gavaskar on Jasprit Bumrah’s absence

Jasprit Bumrah was released from the Indian squad before the fourth Test at Ranchi. Gavaskar argued that bowling only 23 overs in the match is not tiring at all for such supremely fit athletes.

"Despite bowling just 15 overs in the first innings and then eight overs in the second innings of the third Test at Rajkot, Bumrah was rested for Ranchi presumably on the trainer’s recommendation. Don’t forget there was a nine-day break between the second Test and third Test match and then bowling 23 overs in the entire game is not tiring at all, so why was Bumrah rested?” Gavaskar wrote in his column for the Mid Day.

“After the fourth Test there was going to be another eight-days break before the final Test match; enough time for supremely fit athletes to recover and be ready to play for the country,” he added.

The former India opener also praised India’s youngsters like Akash Deep for creating an immediate impact on the game.

“The fourth Test also was a crucial game as, if England had won that, the final Test would have been the decider. So, whether it was the NCA or Bumrah who took the call, it wasn’t in the Indian team’s immediate interest,” he mentioned in his column.

“That young Akash Deep bowled splendidly to offset Bumrah’s absence, once again showed that it doesn’t matter if the big names don’t play there will always be young guns who would be only too happy and as the skipper Rohit Sharma said, be hungry to play for India and to bear any hardship for the honour and privilege of playing for your country,” Gavaskar wrote.

Also read: Sunil Gavaskar labels England win to historic Test victory against Australia in 2020-21

Akash Deep took 3/83 in the first innings but didn’t have much to do in the second innings as bulk of the work was done by the spinners. With Bumrah back for the final Test at Dharamsala, Akash Deep seems to be the likeliest option to make way for him despite an impressive debut.

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