Jasprit Bumrah is the joint no.1 bowler in ICC ODI rankings, but he impressed everyone with his abilities with the red ball. Having made a successful debut in the South Africa Test series, Bumrah has also raised some questions over his extended work load.
Bumrah bowled a whopping 162.1 overs across three formats, including 112.1 overs during the the three-Test series in South Africa.
"I am delighted with Jasprit's performance. We always had confidence in his abilities as he had done well for Gujarat in Ranji Trophy. But now our primary goal is to monitor his workload very carefully with so much international cricket ahead. We need to be careful that he is not over-used," Chief selector MSK Prasad said.
The Chairman of BCCI selection committee clarified that Bumrah will only be used in Test cricket in important series only.
Prasad said, "If you look at his action, it is a rare one and he can be prone to injuries. We need to use him for the important Test series coming ahead. For each and every fast bowler, the balance of workload is very important and the high performance team will be monitoring it closely.”
MSK Prasad also praised the spin twins Kuldeep and Chahal.
"We always believed that wrist spinners are wicket-taking investments that we had to make. Both Chahal and Kuldeep have really lived up to our expectations. The most heartening aspect has been the pool that we have managed to create. We now have five quality spinners for three formats -- Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal and Axar Patel," Prasad said.
MSK Prasad said that ultimate aim for him was to prepare a good bench strength.
"I attribute our team's success to the nice bench strength that we have. We have multiple players for each spot. Like we have rested Hardik Pandya for the Sri Lanka series and we want to create a back-up all-rounder in Vijay Shankar," Prasad clarified.
Clarifying things about the on selection of in-form Mayank Agarwal, Prasad said, “No player should be confused about where he stands. Our committee speaks to every player -- even those who are to selected and try to give them a fair picture. Accordingly, I spoke to Mayank and told him that with his brilliant performances in domestic cricket, he has now definitely got himself in the mix (national team reckoning). I told him that he is now in the queue.”
"We have followed a pattern in our selection process. Each and every national contender is in the queue and we don't believe that anyone can jump the queue. Mayank is a wonderful kid and he completely understood what I explained to him. He told me 'Sir, you are spot on and 'I am not in a hurry at all', "Prasad added.
"I had said before the start of South African tour that this is our best team and I stand by it completely. The Test series was a case of so-near yet-so-far. But full marks to Virat and the team management for keeping up the energy. It was not easy but Virat led from the front as he has always done," Prasad said.
(With inputs from PTI)
