India’s experienced trio of captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Jasprit Bumrah are expected to miss the upcoming home white-ball series against England following the ongoing 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) against Australia. The decision has been made to manage the trio’s workload, although the final choice will be made after talking to the players.
India and England are set to play five T20Is starting on January 22, exactly 15 days after the final scheduled day of the Sydney Test in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The ODIs will follow, beginning on February 6.
Rohit and Kohli have already retired from T20Is, while Bumrah will take time off from both formats. The ODIs will be India’s final bilateral series before the 2025 Champions Trophy in Pakistan and the UAE.
Bumrah, in particular, has taken on a lot of responsibility as India has relied on a young pace attack in Australia. He has delivered 141.2 overs across the four Tests, the highest by any bowler in the series. This includes 53.2 overs in the most recent match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), which is the longest he has ever bowled in a red-ball match.
“To be honest, he has bowled a lot of overs,” Rohit said when asked about the need to manage his load. “There is no doubt about it. But again, every Test match we play, we keep that in mind. You know, the workloads of all the bowlers in fact. But again, if somebody is in such a great form, you want to try and maximize that form how much ever you can. And that is what we’ve been trying to do with Bumrah.”
“But there comes a time where you need to step back a little bit and give him that little bit of extra breather as well. So, we’ve been very careful. I’ve been very careful. I talk to him about how he feels and stuff like that. So, yeah. Those things should be managed carefully. And I’m trying to do that on the field.” he added
Jasir Basharat is a cricket enthusiast capturing the heart of the game through insightful analysis and storytelling sharing his passion for the sport through engaging narratives. He is a business graduate from University of Kashmir.
