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Former India captain and legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar has warned ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah about workload management ahead of the Asia Cup 2025 selection.
The decision to rest Bumrah in the recently concluded Test series against England has been a subject of debate. The right-arm pacer only played three Tests amid a workload management plan after recovering from an injury sustained during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Now, with reports indicating Jasprit Bumrah’s availability for the Asia Cup 2025, Gavaskar has issued a blunt warning in his column for a news outlet.
“Nobody is indispensable. That’s why it is of prime importance for the selectors to now decide when Jasprit Bumrah should be playing,” he said.
“There’s already been a lot of debate about his appearances in the recently concluded series in England. To be fair, he had informed the selection committee that he could play only three Tests out of the five,” the former captain added.
Sunil Gavaskar also criticized the decision to rest Jasprit Bumrah in the all-important fifth match of the series, where the Anderson-Tendulkar trophy was at stake for Team India.
“The debate that has generated some heat is whether he should have played the last must-win Test match, especially since it was the grassiest pitch at the Oval in a long time. The next Test match was in early October, and so there were two clear months for him to rest and recover in time for that,” Gavaskar wrote.
“The Indian team management stated that he wasn’t picked considering his future. This is where the lines between what is good for the individual and what is good for Indian cricket got a little blurred,” he said.
The 76-year-old further remarked that no player is irreplaceable; if Bumrah had been fit, he should have played the final Test match.
“Surely at that stage, if he was fit, then for Indian cricket’s sake, he had to play. Whether then it was his call or the management’s call not to play is not known, but in the end, after India’s win it showed once again, if ever there was need to know that nobody is indispensable in the game. The game just moves on,” Sunil Gavaskar concluded.
READ: Shubman Gill, Mohammed Siraj likely to miss out on Asia Cup selection: report
