Jasprit Bumrah faced backlash for his workload management during the recently held Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. The Indian team management had confirmed before the England tour that star quick would only participate in three of the five Tests.

Bumrah turned up in the first, third and fourth games and was rested for the second Test, which India won by 336 runs at Edgbaston.

Despite India being down 1-2, the No.1-ranked Test bowler didn’t feature in the series-decider at The Oval, where the visitors emerged victorious by a narrow margin of six runs to level the series 2-2.

There were some doubts on Bumrah's availability for the Asia Cup 2025 largely due to the proximity to the home Test series against the West Indies in October, but the selectors named him in the 15-member squad on August 19.

Meanwhile, South African legend AB de Villiers has predicted that Bumrah won't play every Asia Cup game due to workload management.

De Villiers also endorsed selectors' proactive approach to protect senior players like Bumrah, highlighting the importance of managing workload to bring the best out of him.

“Great to see him in the squad, fit and ready to go. I don’t think he will play all the games,” de Villiers said while speaking on his YouTube channel.

“I saw reports saying he will be earmarked for the games that matter and I love that about the selectors being proactive. That’s how you should be managing your senior and most impactful players.”

The former Proteas captain further explained why it is important to protect players over 30 from burnout.

“It’s not like they are picking and choosing. There’s just so much cricket these days. For your older guys, their work has taken its toll over the years. Once you start managing these players, you will get the best out of them, and I love it that they’ve started doing that with Jasprit Bumrah,” he added.

India will open their Asia Cup 2025 campaign against UAE on September 10 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

India’s squad for Asia Cup 2025: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson (WK), Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh.

Reserves: Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Yashasvi Jaiswal.