India skipper Shubman Gill on Sunday (June 15) said that the team doesn’t want to pre-determine which of the five Tests Jasprit Bumrah would be able to feature in the upcoming series against England.
Instead, he argued, the team would monitor his workload on a match-to-match basis and take a call accordingly.
During India’s squad announcement for the England series last month, BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar had told the media that Gill was handed Test captaincy over Bumrah because the ace pacer won’t play all five Tests due to workload management and fitness concerns.
India have travelled to England with a large group of fast bowlers, including Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep and Arshdeep Singh, but none is as threatening as Bumrah, making the latter’s rotation vital.
“Depending on how we go about matches, you know, there might be rain in one of the matches," Gill told Sky Sports’ Dinesh Karthik in an interview.
“So I think it’s more based on match to match, and see how much workload there has been on him. And that’s what you’re trying to look at. You see how much workload he has had in this match. We don’t want to have a predetermined set: ‘Okay, these are the matches that he would want to play.’ Because there are, there are so many factors that can go or not go in your favor, that can determine whether he is going to play the next match or not," he added.
Bumrah sustained a back injury in the fifth and final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024/15. If he misses some games in England, the responsibility to spearhead the attack would come to Siraj.
Gill mentioned that he shares a strong bond with Siraj, who also plays under him at the Gujarat Titans.
“With Siraj, we made our test debut together. We almost made our one-day debut together. He made one match prior to mine, and we played so many matches of India together. So, having that bond with him and knowing what he’s capable of, and like I said, keeping a secure environment and making the player feel secure in his abilities and his capabilities, I feel, is one of the most important things that a leader has to do. And having these kinds of relationships, I think, helps a lot," he remarked.
