Aakash Chopra questions India’s tactics of resting Jasprit Bumrah for 2nd Test against England

Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra has questioned India’s strategy of resting their gun fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah for the second Test match against England. Bumrah was the pick of the Indian bowlers in the first innings of the opening Test as he returned with impressive figures of 5-83. But Bumrah bowled a total of 43.4 overs in the opening Test.

The ace fast bowler has been rested to manage his workload after it was decided that he would play only three out of the five Test matches. Chopra said the second Test match is important for the context of the series and India should have looked to level the series rather than adopt a defensive selection approach.

Shubman Gill said at toss that Lord’s pitch will be more helpful for the bowlers and they would play Bumrah there rather than on a flat deck at Edgbaston.

“Jasprit Bumrah is fit, but we won’t play him. We are 1-0 down, we are thinking about 1-1, but it would be slightly difficult to think about it with Bumrah, or the Lord’s pitch would be better for Bumrah. How do you know that pitch would be better? A very dry surface might be provided, as it happened in the WTC final,” Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.

“If you have shown your hand, that you won’t play Bumrah here, but at Lord’s, it’s a greater incentive for England to prepare a pitch where Bumrah gets nullified. Also, would it not be better to move forward at 1-1 than 2-0? I am not saying that you cannot win the match with the XI you have played, but your best chance of taking 20 wickets, is it with Bumrah or without Bumrah?” he added.

Meanwhile, Sai Sudharsan was dropped from the playing XI after he managed scores of 0 and 30 in his debut Test against England. However, Karun Nair was retained in the final XI despite scoring 0 and 20 in the series opener and was asked to bat at one drop in second Test on Wednesday.

“You played Sai Sudharsan one match, made him bat at No. 3, and No. 3 has become a revolving door. Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill and KL Rahul have also played there, and you played Karun Nair at No. 3 here. If you see the first match, Karun Nair and Sai Sudharsan had similar returns,” he said (6:30).

Chopra questioned Sudharsan’s exclusion from the playing XI after only one Test match. 

“When you drop Sai Sudharsan after just one match, zero in one innings and 30 in the second innings, you said your earlier decision was wrong because you could have kept Karun Nair at No. 3 earlier also and played Nitish Kumar Reddy at No. 6. You gave the kid his debut and then dropped him without him doing a terrible job. Everyone won’t score a century on debut,” Chopra observed.

India ended the opening day’s play at 310-5.