By Karan Agrawal 
India’s fast bowling spearhead, Jasprit Bumrah, has been out of action for a while as he is nursing a back injury that he picked up during the fifth and final test against Australia. Bumrah consulted a New Zealand-based surgeon for the same after the tour came to an end. The fast bowler was unable to bowl after the first session on day two of the New Year’s Test and was rushed to hospital for scans, as a result of which he was unable to take part in the rest of the match. However, he did come to bat during India’s second innings but wasn’t able to make any significant contribution.
Expert’s Corner
Former New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond has warned the team management of how another injury in the same spot can be fatal for Jasprit Bumrah’s career. “Look, I think Booms will be fine, but it’s just that [workload] management [matters],” Bond told ESPNCricinfo. “Looking at the tours and the schedule going forward, where are the opportunities to give him a break, but really where are the danger periods? And often it is that the [transition from] IPL to the Test championship will be a risk. “He’s too valuable for the next World Cup and stuff. So you’d be looking at five Tests in England. I wouldn’t want to be playing him in any more than two in a row. Coming out of the back end of the IPL into a Test match is going to be a huge risk. And so how do they manage that is going to be key.”
The Plan
Bond was of the opinion that the BCCI should not rush Bumrah back and should target the test series against England in June to ease him back into international cricket. In the words of Bond, “They may say, look, it’s four Test matches in total. Or three. If we can get him through the English summer and he’s fit, we can probably then go with some confidence that we can carry him across the rest of the formats. So that’s hard because he is your best bowler, but if he has another injury in the same spot, that could be a career-ender, potentially, because I’m not sure you can have surgery on that spot again.”
The Comeback
There have been uncertainty over Bumrah’s availability for the upcoming season of the IPL with people speculating that he might be able for the latter half of the tournament which might be a race against time considering the fact that the T20 World Cup winner hasn’t played competitive cricket since the New Year’s Test against Australia.