Birmingham [UK], June 30 : India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate confirmed pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah is "available" for the second Test against England at Edgbaston, but it is yet to be decided whether he would feature in the final XI, considering his limited utilisation for the five-match series.
After the conclusion of the series opener, head coach Gautam Gambhir declared that the management would not budge on Bumrah's three-match utilisation. There were recommendations from fans and former cricketers to use Bumrah in all five Tests, but Gambhir quickly turned down the suggestion, claiming they were more concerned about his workload.
Numerous reports have suggested that India won't line up without Bumrah for the second Test. Doeschate addressed the concerns about Bumrah and declared that he is "available" but the management is yet to make a call on whether to send him to the on-field action or not.
"Yeah, he's available for the game, obviously. We know from the start he's only going to play three out of the five. He's obviously had eight days to recover from the last Test. But given conditions and workload and how we think we can best manage for the next four games, we haven't made a call on that. We're going to see what the other guys are with their workload as well. So technically, yes, he's available. But we haven't made a decision on whether he's going to play or not yet," Doeschate told reporters in a press conference.
India lined up with its pace spearhead, Bumrah, in the series opener at Headingley but still ended on the wrong side of the result. He dazzled in the first innings with figures of 5/83 but lost his magic and returned wicketless in the second.
With Bumrah's threat vanished into thin air, England trounced India by gunning down a 371-run target, their second-highest successful chase in the format. With the crafty quick available for two Tests out of four, Doeschate affirmed that they have to evaluate which surface would be optimum to get the best out of the 31-year-old.
"With Bumrah, he is ready to play. So, like I said in the very first question, it's how we manage these four tests. So if we feel like there's value in playing him in this Test, we'll make that call at the very last minute. But I'm talking about whether, how the pitch is going to play. Are we better off holding him back for Lord's and maybe Manchester or the Oval? So it's all those factors," he said.
Bumrah returned to the nets on Saturday during the optional training session. The final call will be taken by India, considering how good Bumrah feels about his body going into the Test.
"But you've seen him train yesterday. He trained a little bit today. It's not like he's not fit to play. It's just trying to fit those puzzle pieces to get the most out of him, out of what we know we do have from him," he added.
India's squad: Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (VC & WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.
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